Gloyd's Past - Island of the Shadows
by DreamerAwaken
Summary: Halloween is near! There's nothing that can compare to the costumes, the pranks and of course, candy! The Sugar Rush racers are partly enjoying this, but something they did not expect happened- a new land have been unlocked! They go to meet the new racers sealed in that part of the game... but things are not OK. Sequel of Gloyd's Past - The lonely child! Ships involved.
1. Prologue

No moon or stars in the sky. Just clouds shielding their glow away. Not a single light to shine upon the dark land. Everything was still, like if time itself just stopped, and it's been like that for as long as any could remember.

Ever since _then_, nothing in the island had changed.

It was always the same sight, the same enveloping darkness, the same maddening stillness. Every hour, every day, week and _year_, everything remained the same.

_Just the way it should be_, were the thoughts of something making it's way through the forest. As it passed through the mist, the surroundings became even more quiet and still, a thought no one could deem as possible. Not even the wind dared to blow, almost as if in fear of disturbing the ambiance _they_ liked so much.

Something else, however,_ did_.

_Screams. _Filling every inch of the forest, echoing over the trees, the rocks, and carried away with the mist.

Feeling a grand pleasure traveling all over their being, they made their way towards the sound, one thought in mind:

_The Death was dancing tonight._

* * *

Litwack stretched his arms and yawned, the end of September was near, and everything in his arcade was already decorated for the upcoming Halloween celebration, in fact, the whole city got ready for this event quite early... as usual.

Pumpkins were already on sale on supermarkets and local farms, with special offers on candies or costumes. There were huge posters hung in every wall on town that filled it with shades of orange and black. Black cats, ghosts, bats, spiders and witches images were seen on every store. Even all the bakeries he had known over the years were offering pastries that matched the occasion.

Despite the early setting of all things mentioned, Mr. Litwack loved to see the city with this enthusiasm, and he couldn't stay behind of it- he loved to see kids having fun; he didn't enjoy many Halloweens during his childhood, so it was pretty refreshing to see kids with their costumes and having fun in the streets, with the usual company of their parents, or young adults that were still young at heart and dressed for the occasion. Litwack, however, always worked on Halloween night because he was constantly worried of kids taking their tricking too far.

Thanks to that, in a way, the owner of the arcade had created his own little tradition; he always gave a few candies to all gamers that entered his building through the whole month, and gave a full package of treats to all those who made it to the Top Board. He's been doing that for a few years now, so now he had decided to do a small change so it wouldn't get old- he was still going to give away candy, because it wasn't such a wise idea to get into the youngsters' bad side.

Litwack went outside and hanged a huge advisement on the entrance that said:

**'3x1 OFFERT! SUGAR RUSH MARATHON UNTIL HALLOWEEN NIGHT! INCREDIBLE GIFTS FOR THE 3 HIGHEST SCORES OF THE DAY!' **

Sugar Rush had been a pretty popular game ever since he installed it in the arcade, along with his retro games, but he figured out that it would be good to promote the game this season because of the candy theme. He made sure that the advisement was hanged correctly and, once he was satisfied with his work, Litwack took the stairs he used and went back inside his building. The owner checked that all the consoles were working correctly, and once he was done he checked his watch- just two more hours until he opened the arcade.

"Well, I guess I'll go make me a coffee and then I'll settle everything else for the marathon." Yawning lightly, he went to his coffee machine to prepare an espresso, completely unaware of a certain sweet racer looking at the announcement through the screen of her game.

* * *

Vanellope Von Schweetz, the current President of Sugar Rush, was sitting on her kart's hood in the middle of a plain road, her eyes fixed on the words written on the advisement, and her face showing somewhat of a serious mask.

"What's up, Prez? Relaxing until the races start?"

She jumped slightly at the sudden voice near her and turned around to see who it was. It turned out to be Swizzle who had just parked his kart and made his way towards her. Vanellope just smiled at him, but it seemed to be a bit forced.

The darevil took notice of this. "You OK? You look sour."

"I _am_ feeling sour." She groaned as she put her hand under her chin, signaling with her head the advisement outside. "Can you read the words past the screen?"

Swizzle looked up, focusing his sight a bit so he could see what was wrong. "...'Sugar Rush Marathon'? But that sounds pretty cool!" He looked at the raven girl with a slight smile, who just sighed annoyed.

"Well, yeah, right, it DOES sound cool. But what else does it says?"

"It says it's a Halloween sale." Swizzle blinked, still not seeming to get her point.

Vanellope hit her forehead with her palm lightly. "Well, _DOI_! Think a little bit would ya? _Halloween_. What do you think it means?"

Swizzle let the words sink for a short while, and when he finally get it, he smirked a bit. "Oh, Gloyd?" He laughed. "That's what's on your nerves?"

"Uh, yeah." She huffed. "You know how he's like in this season."

The boy nodded, but he seemed beyond bothered by this. "Well, you should know your boyfriend. It's 'his' season anyways, so we can't help it." He shrugged.

Despite her obvious serious mask, Swizzle could notice her cheeks turned a darker shade of pink, albeit slightly. "So? Gloyd can go too far with his pranks in Halloween. It's like he stored them through the whole year and made them even more annoying."

"Technically, that's exactly what he does." Swizzle shook his head, smirk never flattening. "But I wouldn't say _that_ annoying; he once told me that he only looks for a massive reaction from all of us."

"Uh-huh." Vanellope said unamused. "Like that one time he catapulted a giant jelly towards the starting line and splattered everyone?"

Swizzle laughed, remembering that one occasion. "Yeah! Come to think of it, you almost dropped him in the Fungeon that one time!"

Vanellope raised her arms high. "OF COURSE I would do that! It was the Random Rooster Race and we lost a lot of time cleaning the place to start!" She then remembered something else. "And when we were about to, Pumpkinhead somehow found a way to switch the background music!"

Swizzle laughed louder, remembering perfectly that instead of hearing the opening song of the triple R, Gloyd had replaced it with John Cena's theme at full volume. They were stuck with that song for at least ten minutes. Vanellope watched Swizzle hollering with laughter, and she couldn't help but laugh as well too.

"Oh man." He held his aching sides, trying to calm down. "Gloyd never told me how he was able to sneak through!"

"I think that for Minty's sake, he shouldn't teach you." She said with a smirk, getting a frown from Swizzle. "But you get my point, right?"

The darevil let out a chuckle, and nodded. "Yeah, I do. But you know he's my bro. Besides, asking him to don't move a finger in Halloween is like asking Beard Papa to not being an annoying old man."

"Point taken, but still, I would like to have at least one Halloween without him running around and-"

**"GLOYD! COME HERE!"**

Both of them jumped at the sudden scream, that could not belong to any other but a certain peanut buttercup boy, and bolted their head up, just in time to hear Gloyd's laughter as he drove past them in his kart at full speed.

"HEY GUYS, BYE GUYS!" He said, never stopping his laughter. A trail of sugar sparkles following the brunet's path made them cough, just to hear another kart's engine roaring nearby.

Swizzle looked at the distance with squinted eyes, and saw a _very_ steamed Rancis speeding up- and his hair was now pure white! The _once_ blonde racer's face was red with rage.

"WHEN I'M DONE WITH YOU ORANGEBOAR, YOUR HAT WITH BE NOTHING BUT PUMPKIN PUDDING- SO WILL BE YOUR **FACE!**" He shouted after the orange hooligan and they both soon disappeared from sight. Both President and darevil blinked, before sighing, and looking at each other.

Vanellope was the first one to speak. "Guess it was too much to ask for."

He chuckled. "You know Rancis IS easiest person to tick off." Swizzle shrugged, but snickered soon after. "Man, even if we dye his hair with a lighter or darker shade of blonde, he'll go nuts!"

Vanellope laughed a bit. "Yeah, I never saw the big deal about it!" She hopped into her kart once she stopped laughing, and started it. "I better go and gather everyone at the starting line; would ya check on the boys so we can start without any problems? Those two are on the list for the day after all- oh, and make sure Pumpkinhead won't mess anything with his pranks during the races." She looked at him dully.

Swizzle grinned and bowed comically. "I'll bring your boyfriend before you can say 'Orangeboar'!" The boy laughed as she blushed once more, and after waving her goodbye he hopped into his kart as well, and the kids went their own ways: Swizzle to get his friends and Vanellope to settle everything for the upcoming day.

But what none of them, or anyone knew at the moment, is that both actions will lead to one thing- a destination that will change many things this upcoming Halloween.

* * *

**A/N: Hey guys! About time I started to post this sequel huh? Yeah, not much going on- but I can assure you this will get better! (OOPS SPOILERS) First chapter will be uploaded on October 1st! So please watch for it!**

**To give away a quick info- the ships involved here will be VanellopexGloyd, SwizzlexMinty and RancisxTaffyta! Though I'm not all into mushy stuff with characters I don't fully own, I will try my best to portray them correctly!**

**So, until next update guys! Tell me what you think in the Reviews page!**

**~DreamerAwaken**

_EDIT: 06/04/2016. It's pretty impressive so see how much I have improved my writing in a year. I'll have to correct a lot of everything, but it'll be worth in the end!_


	2. A new Island? Lamb of Memories

**A/N: Such a long wait! But as I promised, the first chapter of my sequel is now uploaded! I have been writing the first chapters these last few days so the next upload will be up soon. (Hopefully!)**

**Also! There are a few cameos here- let's see if you guys can spot them all ;) **

**Enjoy!**

* * *

That day was indeed a long, tiring one. Not even the high amount of Sweet Seekers, Cherry Bombs or character's items used that single day would be enough to describe it- however; it was not over done yet!

Gloyd Orangeboar was chosen multiple times that day. And even though his statistics were pretty low compared to the other's, it seemed the gamers didn't mind it as they were all slowly getting in the Halloween mood. So far he had only came second in all races he's been chosen- right behind Vanellope, as usual, but that didn't make him any less pumped up about it!

Now, this was the final leap before the arcade closed, and the raven girl was once more in front of all the avatars! Vanellope, however, was out of chances to use her glitching as the gamer who choose her used all the given opportunities: to avoid a Sweet Seeker, to pull ahead of Swizzle who was trying to block her path, and the last one was just to catch up with the rest after getting trapped in a Syrup puddle.

Not giving it much importance, she pulled up ahead for the Finish line, but she quickly noticed she missed the chance to grab an item box, which was quickly grabbed by Gloyd who was right behind of her after moving right past Taffyta.

**"SUGAR RUSH!"**

Gloyd smirked and looked up ahead, this was his chance! The gamer activated the item and soon his kart picked up a lot of speed and zoomed right past Vanellope, leaving her in a sugary trails of dust- he made it!

**"FIRST PLACE! GLOYD ORANGEBOAR!"** Said the announcer's voice as the image of the racing track soon switched to Gloyd holding a golden cup. He raised his hands and grabbed the trophy with an excited face.

"Trick for you, treat for me!" He said his winning phrase as he smiled at the gamer, who just chuckled and fist bumped another girl next to her as the game was over. Litwack congratulated them both and checked the screen, seeing the highest scores.

"Well, you two ladies are quite the duo!" He smiled at them as he saw they were on said scores. Litwack then walked to the counter with them following him and a few others kids that stayed to see their playing. "Alright! The person that goes as _'ANJ'_ got most points next to _'VIC'_ and _'V-S'_! Here are your prizes…"

As the man gave away the goodies to the three gamers, no one was aware of the racers hopping out of their karts, looking extremely worn out as they winced and groaned.

"Ouch, my back!" Complained Minty as she stood on the ground, her hand caressing that area.

Crumbelina sneered at her. "Your back? Excuse me, my whole body hurts after receiving all your seekers!"

"I think my candle is broken." Whimpered Candlehead, trying to get a good glimpse of her prized object.

"Your candle is fine." Sighed Snowanna, taking out her helmet. "My hair is a mess though."

"It always looked messy anyways, no big deal." Smirked Taffyta as she held her aching shoulder, getting a scowl from the snow cone girl. "But yeah, the day dragged for too long, and to think we'll be racing just like this tomorrow…"

Jubileena wined. "Ugh, can't you please not bring that up? I'm thinking about skipping the triple R after this!"

Vanellope just watched this from her kart with Gloyd sitting next to her, and rolled her eyes as they saw the scene, but still smiled. "Boy, I hope their fussing won't get worse with each passing day."

"Oh, trust me, they'll be too tired to even open their mouths after all these races." He grinned at her as he held his trophy in front of him, and then looked at it. "Heh, it's been a while since I won a golden cup, luck's been on my side today!"

Swizzle was sitting on his kart near them, and smirked. "Yeah, but you'll be eating my dust tomorrow!"

Gloyd smirked back at his best friend. "Try me, bro!"

"Whatever you two…" Vanellope smirked at them. "Yanno what? It's been a long day- let's go chill out at Tapper's!" The racers cheered at the idea of getting out of the racing track for a nice break.

But then, as she hopped down from her kart, Vanellope felt a light tug on her hood. She looked down behind of her to find Sour Bill, looking rather concerned about something, and that wasn't something so common. "Hey Bill, what's up?" The raven girl knew this could be bad news- just what she needed.

"Miss President, something is… off in the code room." He started to explain. This called everyone's attention to the point their plans for Tapper's ended.

The code room hadn't been mentioned after they restored their memories, which was about two years ago.

_'Two years ago...' _Gloyd thought bitterly; he didn't like to think about the time they all mistreated Vanellope with the whole Turbo fiasco.

He then remembered how much had happened in those past years; just a few months after the problem with Turbo and the Cy-Bugs, and after meeting the Sweet Tooth Racers, Vanellope found someone she thought had forgotten- the original King Candy. He was trapped inside his own code box apart from the others just like she was, and Vanellope found him when she was looking for any damage that could have been caused after Garry's attack; Turbo had managed to use the King's avatar as his own to fool everybody, and for a long while they thought he had made him himself before Vanellope's discovering.

It was quite an emotional reunion when Vanellope found him and recognized him as her father, he believed, but no one trusted him at first- specially Ralph; it took a while but the King proved them all he wasn't going to harm his own people, or Vanellope.

Gloyd stopped his train of thought and decided to listen to Sour Bill, who was addressing the whole thing to the raven girl. "I tried to fix it myself with his highness King Candy, but I figured out it was a wiser idea to let you know about this when that didn't work…"

"But, what's wrong with it?" Gloyd found himself asking.

"Yeah, and how long has it been 'off'?" Vanellope looked down at the royal adviser, now looking concerned as well.

Sour Bill sighed. "Barely ten minutes ago… probably after the final leap was done. The code room suddenly started to shine from behind the curtains, but King Candy couldn't find anything…"

Swizzle blinked. "Final Leap? Gloyd was the one who won it." All heads turned to Gloyd.

The raven girl looked at him, rather dully. "You didn't do anything, did ya Pumpkinhead?"

"Who are you taking me for?" Gloyd glared, though looking more confused than angry. "I would never set a foot in the code room! That thing is off-charts from my pranks."

"Ma'am President, I want you to come to sort this out…" Sour Bill cut their conversation, looking at each racer subtly. "And maybe we should take the rest of the avatars to the castle too, in case we need assistance."

"Don't you have enough people in the castle?" Candlehead said confused, but Sour Bill only rolled his eyes.

"For beginners, this seemed to have happened when Orangeboar obtained first place. We should take him with us since there might be a chance both things are related… and as for you…" The sour candy ball sighed. "I figured out you'll just tag along…"

Adorabeezle nodded. "You know me well enough, this is a worrying subject." A few others nodded in agreement.

Rancis then stepped in front, he was wearing a brown wool hat that covered most part of his head, but some white strands of hair were visible. "If you can do anything about MY hair, I would be deeply grateful." He then glared at Gloyd. "I just can't believe you did this! I couldn't even race today!"

"I told you that you just needed to wash your hair- it's not permanent." Gloyd rolled his eyes. "But instead you just made a whole fuss about it when you could have just took a shower- the races started an hour after!"

"Now, dudes!" Swizzle stepped in the middle to avoid them from getting their discussion any further. "This thing about the code room might be a serious issue, can't we just check it out already?"

"Indeed…" Sighed Sour Bill again. "Let's go for once, I'm missing my coffee break…"

* * *

A quick ride in their karts later, the racers reached the castle and made their way through the corridors at a fast pace with Vanellope and Sour Bill leading them. The sound of the troops chanting_ 'Oreo'_ came echoing towards them, and soon they stood in front of the throne room's door, heavily protected by the Oreo guards.

"Halt." Said the captain, the only Golden Oreo that could be seen and he stood in front of his troop. "Who's there with the President and Sour Bill?"

"Just the whole gang of racers." Explained the raven girl. "It's OK cap'n, I allowed them to come."

"As you say, miss President." The Oreos moved aside, letting the racers in as the doors slowly opened.

Once inside the room, Vanellope saw King Candy sitting on his seat while gazing at the floor with a thoughtful expression, his face leaning on his left hand, but as he looked up and saw them coming, he smiled goofily. "Ah! Thankth for bringing them over Sthowa Bill!" He hopped off from his throne to greet the racers. "Welcome young oneth! I am happy to announce I jutht found out the problem we had!"

"Really dad?" Vanellope blinked. "I thought it was serious!"

King Candy looked calm however. "Well, maybe not lethally theriouth, but it made my code rush until I found out what it wath and hoo! Thtung me like a honeybee!"

Taffyta stepped in the front and stuck her lollipop out her mouth. "What is it, then?"

"I apologize but, I might bring up thome nathty memorieth… " He said. "Ath you all know, Turbo did not only mezethd up with my daughter'th code, but with the game itthelf to azhure hith winning thtreak."

"I know that one, even a few power-ups were forbidden." Minty added.

King Candy then walked to his throne, searched something in the back of a red velvet pillow, and found what seemed to be a folded cloth. "Exactly, dear Minty." He then walked past the racers and reached a cereal bar board with many papers pinned on it hanging on the wall. "And thith ith, indeed, another thing he blocked in hith thtay!"

He quickly hanged what he was holding in the board to then stepped aside to let the kids see what he meant, and everyone gasped. It was the image of an island.

"Wait! You mean… there's a new land in the game!?" Candlehead seemed excited.

"That's some… news." Sour Bill commented as he sipped from his black coffee, his eyes not leaving the map.

Crumbelina looked over. "That explains the issue in the Code Room then? Or was it part of another upgrade?"

"Why yeth! It wath part of the izthue with the code room!" The King said giggling. "Like I thaid- thtung me like a honeybee! From thalmon to blue I thaw how the light changed all the colorth of thith room while I wath reading!" He stood near the kids. "When I went to check I thaw thith one chetht glitching far away, tho I jutht reached it and opened it, jutht to find that thith island wath locked by Turbo, tho I unlocked it to free the avatarth of the place!"

Taffyta rolled her eyes. "I knew he was a cheater, but _come on_."

"Why did he block that island?" Candlehead tilted her head, seeming not to catch on.

Rancis shrugged. "I guess the characters have higher stats than us, and knowing Turbo, he probably didn't want to lose to them or something."

"Awesome! I can't wait to check out the place!" Said Swizzle with a wide grin, but then it became a confused stare as he saw Gloyd walking towards the image.

He then just stared at it closely in silence.

"Gloyd?" Vanellope looked at him, confused as well. She knew that when Gloyd was quiet, it was because he was either thinking deeply, or felt uncomfortable with something.

"…" He stood quiet for a shorter while, but then he looked back at them with a huge grin that rivaled Swizzle's. "Guys! This is like, a Halloween island!" He pointed at all the details that proved his points: fields of bright orange pumpkins, a moon with a smile that was like the ones crafted on pumpkins, bats flying near a foggy forest, and so on.

Rancis shook his head as Gloyd just keep pointing out stuff at the map childishly. "Oh joy… now I see how it'll go down if he goes there." Next to him, Taffyta and Jubileena nodded their heads softly, looking rather amused.

King Candy walked near him. "Oh hoo! I jutht knew you'll LOVE to thee it Orangeboar! Thith land goeth by the name of Trickery Treat!" He patted the boy's head. "I think you zhould go and thee it right away!"

Vanellope looked a bit shocked by his idea. "Right now? Dad, I have to set things up for the triple R and we'll have a tough day tomorrow with the marathon thing!" A few racers groaned as they remembered their day, and Gloyd seemed really disappointed.

However, King Candy seemed to be on the prankster's side that day. "I athked our good fellowth of the Thweet Tooth kingdom to back you kidth up before you arrived, thince I figured out you'll like to go there!"

"Wait, Jimmy and the others?" Crumbelina seemed surprised, while Jubileena squealed out in joy. "I will get to see Larry! It's been a while since we had a date..."

Adorabeezle smiled at her. "You two went out on a date the day before yesterday."

"That's a long while, OK?"

"Hang on, are we ALL going?" Rancis looked at Vanellope, seeming unconviced. "Why can't the guys of that island come here instead?"

"They can't." Said the King and everyone turned to him "Unlike our neighborth from Thweet Tooth kingdom, thith characterth are in another island at the other thide of the thea; they can't come here because they are thealed there. Tho I think it would be a much thuitable idea if you all go there inthtead to meet them."

Jubileena looked at Vanellope pleadingly. "I know this might be be an important meeting, but would like to stay here."

"Let's hold a voting then! Who's coming?" Vanellope raised her hand.

"I'm going there! No doubt!" Said Gloyd with a grin that matched a Jack-O-Lantern's, Swizzle, Minty, Rancis and Taffyta raised their hands as well. The Halloween themed racer looked at the last two confused. "You are going?"

"Got a reputation to keep." She said simply. "If we are racing against these guys, I want to be there."

"Same here." Rancis shrugged.

Gloyd rolled his eyes playfully at that as he knew Rancis too well. The blonde was probably going so he would be near Taffyta. "Whatever you say…"

"And you Mintz?" Swizzle smiled at his girlfriend.

Minty just crossed her arms. "Knowing you and your way of meeting others? I will rather go there to avoid you getting in troubles with these avatars." Vanellope just nodded beside her, making the two boys smile sheepishly.

"Well, it'th thettled now!" King Candy said smiling. "Go and tell your parentth, the oneth who are leaving! Pack your thtuff! The retht mutht get ready for tomorrow, and help me to bring the neighborth to our kingdom, ho hoo!" As they all nodded and left, King Candy stood there alone for a while fixing his bow and eventually decided to follow the young ones.

But something sparkled in his eyes, and made him freeze his tracks.

He put his hand under his chin, a worried expression starting to form on his features. "Wait… Trickery Treat…?"

* * *

**"Mom! Dad!"** Gloyd ran towards his house after parking his kart outside. Hearing his owner's voice, Spook squeaked out in joy and flew outside to greet him by hugging the boy's face with his wings. "Hey buddy!" Gloyd cried as he scratched the little's bat head, making his pet squeak in delight as he released his face.

Lady Pumpkin came out from the house as she heard the commotion, and smiled brightly at she the scene. "Hee hee! Welcome pumpkin!" She kneeled down and picked her son, kissing his cheeks many times.

"Mooom!" Gloyd whined, but he was used to his mother doing that- Lady Pumpkin sometimes resembled more to a young girl than an adult. "Put me down!" He laughed.

"I say, what is the matter?" Lord Gourd walked out, but also smiled, amused by the scene of his wife showering their boy with kisses. "Ah, dear son of mine! When thee would show up, wondering I was."

"Hi dad! Sorry I came late!" Gloyd was placed on the ground, but he was still bouncing on his spot.

The two adults just chuckled. "What's that dear? A new prank? Something happened in the racetrack?" Lady Pumpkin asked.

The boy jumped high to her eye level, Spook mimicking his movements. "Both!"

"Both?" His parents said in unison with glee.

"I won first place today!" Gloyd raced back to his kart and picked his golden cup to show it to his parents. At the sight of it, Lady Pumpkin hugged him and Lord Gourd ruffled his hair.

"Well done~! I'm so proud of you!" She said.

As the hug ended, the Orangeboars walked inside the house and placed the golden cup on their highest shelf. Then they moved to the couch to eat a few threats and talk about their day. Gloyd was just done filling them in with the prank he pulled that morning.

"You dyed Rancis' hair once more?" Lord Gourd sighed, but smiled still. "My friend Reese won't mind at all, I hope."

Lady Pumpkin just giggled. "Oh, you know Reesy! He would love to spend time with his son fixing his little blonde hair!"

Spook smiled as the family kept talking while he rested on Gloyd's lap. _'Knowing Nuttingham, he'll probably join them for a bath!' _He snickered quietly, nomming on his cookie.

Gloyd grinned. "Now the biggest news I just heard of!" The two adults just chuckled at each other, probably because Gloyd was more or less going to talk about a new prank he came up with, or a shortcut he found at the racetrack, or-

"A new HALLOWEEN land appeared! I'm going to check it out soon with!"

Lady Pumpkin gasped. "A Halloween land you say!?" Her eyes sparkled, alongside Spook's. "Oh my gobs, that sounds a~ma~zing~!"

_'Yes it does!'_ Squeaked the little grey bat as he reached his owner's shoulder.

"Indeed!" Lord Gourd nodded next to his wife. "But, when did this land appeared?"

"Today!" The boy held Spook to his chest, scratching his pet behind his ears. "I bet it has to do with the fact I won first place! It's an island called Trickery Treat; even the name sounds awesome!"

To his surprise however, it seemed his parents were no longer there because he didn't hear a single sound from them. When Gloyd looked up at them, the two seemed to be in deep thought; despite having seen them before like that, Gloyd had to admit it wasn't often.

"Trickery Treat…?" Lady Pumpkin looked at her husband. "Dear, does it sounds familiar to you?"

Lord Gourd nodded. "I shall not lie when I say 'yes'. In fact… it is telling me something, this gut feeling I have."

"Something like..?" Gloyd turned his head's side to look at both his parents, waiting for their answer.

Finally, Lady Pumpkin let out a disappointed sigh. "Oh… nothing sweet heart! I think we saw that place once with your daddy, but I don't remember anything!"

Gloyd blinked. "Is that so?" He found it confusing, but if his parents didn't remember it too clearly, then maybe they were talking referring to something else? The land had just appreared today, anyways. "Um, we're planning on leaving today by the way, to meet the racers there. Can you help me pack some of my stuff? I think we'll stay there for a while because the Sweet Tooth racers will race instead of us."

"Who else is accompanying thee?" Asked Lord Gourd, deciding to leave the matter aside.

"We are not that many: Vanellope, Swizzle, Minty, Rancis, Taffyta, and me." He counted with his fingers. "The rest of the girls are either not interested in the land or hoping to see their boyfriends."

Lady Pumpkin giggled. "Well, their lose~! I bet you all can have a lot of fun just by being so less! Oh, and since Vanellope's going, maybe you guys can enjoy yourselves even more~" She said mischievously, making Gloyd blush strongly.

"Mom!" He exclaimed while his parents laughed, Spook included. "Yeah, she's going, but I'm more excited about that place!"

"Sure you are!" She giggled louder.

Rolling his eyes, Gloyd looked at his pet bat. "What about you buddy? Wanna check it out with me?" Spook didn't have to think twice and nodded eagerly. "That's the answer I was expecting!"

Chuckling, Lord Gourd stood up and dusted himself off. "Well then! Let's pack up for your travel, my son, so that you won't be late."

Gloyd cheered with Spook. "Thanks guys!" The four members of the family went upstairs to Gloyd's room, and once inside they began to settle things in a candy corn bag. Lady Pumpkin made sure he had a clean pair of shoes and some wax to clean his beloved pumpkin hat, Spook was taking some of Gloyd's clothes out with a few of his own toys while Lord Gourd sent Gloyd out with a little mission, he asked him to compare the candycorn of Sugar Rush with the one located at the new land.

"As silly as it may sound, I would like to know it from thee- shall the candy be better at that place, we would like a sample to see!" The man said as the shoved a bag of said candy in his son's bag.

As Gloyd was taking out some extra clothes out to finish packing his bag, Spook went to check the box that contained most of his toys. In said box there were also a few old toys that belonged to Gloyd in the past. The bat decided to climb the big box to see what else he should take out, and then he found something that called his attention. He grabbed said object with his claws and began to tug it out- it was heavy!

"Uh, Spook?" Gloyd blinked as he glanced up to see his pet. "Hey, what are you-?" Finally, the object went out from the box, but with the strength Spook used he lost his grip on it!

_THUD!_ It hit Gloyd right on the head, and though it wasn't a heavy object he had to jump a few steps back to maintain his balance. Lady Pumpkin looked worriedly at him. "You OK, Pumpkin?" Spook reached his owner's shoulder and licked his face a couple of times.

Gloyd took the object off his face and shook his head. "Uh, yes mom!" He looked at her with a small smile, and then at Spook with a smirk. "Gee, just how strong are you? Don't take it out on me!"

_'Sorry master!'_ Spook smiled sheepishly, but then his gaze was fixed in the object Gloyd was holding, curiosity in his golden eyes, and Gloyd followed his example.

It was a brown lamb plush, which was in a pretty bad shape, probably for being used too much in the past. One of its button eyes was missing, the wool was a bit scratchy, and the plush could use a quick wash as well- not because it smell or anything, it just had a bit of dust on it.

"Huh, I don't remember this one at all…" Gloyd's first thought was to sniff it since most of his toys had scents, so he did, and he sensed a very faith smell of chocolate.

An image came to mind.

...

_Swizzle was in front of him, but it was a much younger version of his friend._

_And the lamb was next to Gloyd, it looked as good as new. Swizzle said something, and he answered, but he couldn't make out the words. However, there was a word he could understand._

_'Shey'_

_..._

"Gloyd? My son?" Lord Gourd shook the boy carefully, snapping him out of his thoughts. "You alright? You spaced out."

"Y-yeah, I'm fine!" Gloyd smiled, though he was confused- what did he just saw? He glanced at the sheep plush, and decided to save it in his bag. Maybe he could ask Swizzle about it later.

Ignoring this, Lady Pumpkin giggled. "Well now~ we just finished packing everything! I'm pretty sure we packed Spook's things too!"

Gloyd checked the bag to make sure he had everything for his bat and himself, and after a while he decided they had all the stuff they needed. "Thanks mom! Thanks dad!" He smiled. "I'll be leaving now then! I can't have the guys leaving without me!"

And with that, he raced downstairs with Spook perched on his shoulder after hugging his parents goodbye.

However, as they saw their son leave the house in his kart, both Lady Pumpkin and Lord Gourd couldn't shake the odd feeling off their minds.

Why was the name Trickery Treat so _familiar_ to them?

* * *

"OK, we ready?" Vanellope was carrying her pet rabbit Whipcream in the pocket of her hood; the rest of the racers, along with the Sweet Tooth avatars and the recolors, were at the beach to see them take off to the unlockable island.

Swizzle gave her a thumps up with Ty-Dye on his shoulder. "I'm ready to go!" Minty and Taffyta were saying goodbye to their friends and Rancis was sitting on his brown bag, his hair was now golden and shiny after a long shower session- he was the last one to arrive because of it.

Gloyd was carrying Spook in his arms waiting for the girls to finish their talking, he then looked at Rancis. "Hey, where's your cat?" Indeed, Lord Nuttingham was nowhere to be found.

Rancis looked back at him. "Oh, I don't think that taking him to that island would be a very good idea." He shrugged. "Crumbelina will take care of him, besides, Nuttingham likes Cocoa's company."

"Huh, makes sense." The brunet noted. After a while that felt like it took forever to end, Taffyta and Minty joined their group.

"Well, this is it!" Vanellope looked at the wide crew of racers with a smile. "You guys work hard until we come back, and if there's any problem, just go to the castle and ask my dad for help."

"Is not like we'll burn the whole place down in our stay." Jimmy rolled his eyes, before wrapping his arm around Crumbelina's waist with a cocky grin. "But we will, and I'll enjoy my stay a lot."

Crumbelina just pushed his arm away with a huff. "Gee, moody." He grumbled.

"Hasta luego, amigos!" Larry took off his hat and bowed slightly while hugging Jubileena, who just giggled next to him.

Gloyd and Vanellope nodded at each other and stood on the bridge with the rest of the group. Far away, the boat came to view, and the racers began to wave them goodbye.

"Good luck!" Said Adorabeezle with her calm smile. "Have a safe trip!"

"Bye Minty!" Torvald and Sticky grinned at their sister.

Candlehead giggled. "Have fun!"

"Don't worry." Tea smiled while holding Fang's hand. "We'll make sure to keep things in order!"

The twins groaned next to them. "You're so…" "…not fun!"

Vanellope snickered. "Thanks guys! Good luck with everything!"

Once the boat arrived, everyone came aboard quickly. Gloyd was the first to reach the front part to watch the clear sky ahead with Spook. Minty and Swizzle joined him while Taffyta and Rancis went to save their belongings under deck.

Vanellope quickly went to select the island's coordinates that were displayed in a screen attached to the boat. "Ready guys? We are about to take off!" She clicked the button, and a programmed voice spoke up:

**'NEW DESTINY: TRICKERY TREAT!'** Soon enough, the boat took off at great speed.

"WOOO!" Gloyd grabbed his hat to prevent it from falling, Spook chirped excitedly as he also grabbed his crown, the two of them enjoying the wing hitting their faces, with the cheering of Swizzle and Ty-Dye near them . After a while, the boat seemed to have slowed down its pace enough to allow them to release their hats and their pets.

Vanellope glitched next to Gloyd with a smile, Whipcream following her path with quick hops. "Well, that'll do for now, it might take a while to get there though."

Gloyd shrugged, smiling at her. "That's fine by me, it gives me time to plot something out." Next to him, Spook made a amused sound, before deciding to play a bit with the white rabbit.

As Vanellope was about to ask what he meant, someone cut her. "Look, gummy dolphins!" Said Rancis as he pointed at the teal, semi-transparent animals that were jumping a few meters away from their boat. A few other aquatic animals were spotted; pancake manta rays were poking their heads out and flapping their fins at the kids, gumdrop fishes of all colors could be appreciated circling around them with some cherry jellyfishes, creating something that assembled to a rainbow in the water. "I knew I should have brought my camera-" **_Click!_**

Taffyta was holding a pink caramel camera in her hands as she took a shot of all the creatures together. "One step ahead of you." She smirked at Rancis, who just scratched the back of his head with a sheepish smile. Everyone decided to keep looking at the candy creatures that keep splashing around them without a single care, with both Spook and Ty-Dye flying over them and Whipcream watching eagerly from the boat.

"As long as a Great White Gummy Shark won't show up…" Gloyd muttered, and then laughed as Rancis widened his eyes in panic. Vanellope glared at him, but seemed amused. "Stop killing the mood, would ya?" Minty watched and pointed to each fish she saw, recognizing them thanks to a book, she claimed, that was made by her and her sisters in earlier years. Swizzle only watched her, not quite knowing was she was saying, but enjoying how happy she was.

After a while though, the creatures seemed to lose their interest and left the boat's side to go swim somewhere else. At first he seemed disappointed, because Minty was as well, but then Swizzle looked up and gasped. "Check it out guys, it's getting darker!" He pointed up. The sky was degrading from their usual calypso with pink cotton candy clouds to a deep blue color. "I can see a few stars already, but I didn't see a sunset or anything!"

"Maybe it's by default." Minty looked at him as everything got dark when the boat advanced under the dark sky, the sea now looked completely different with the change of light. "Halloween is celebrated during night, so I guess the island was programmed with a permanent night ambient."

The green haired boy looked at her with a blank look. "Does that mean they are always sleeping?"

Minty sighed, a small smile on her lips. "Never mind…"

Vanellope laughed a bit, then checked the screen and smiled. "We'll be there soon!" Her rabbit cheered along the pets.

"Cool!" The brunet grinned at Vanellope. "But that was faster than I thought, I couldn't plot out anything."

"I don't think pranking the islanders is such a bright idea." She said with a little smirk. "You'll get on their bad side, or get us all in it. Better start forgetting about doing anything like that when we arrive."

Gloyd smiled secretly. "And who says they won't prank US? It's a Halloween land, Princess, and Halloween means nothing without tricking people."

At this realization, she grimaced. "It's official; I wanna go back- no way I'll deal with ten more Pumpkinheads."

"Aw c'mon!" The boy laughed and hugged her with one arm. "I bet that they are amateurs compared to me! Nothing to worry about." He smiled proudly.

Vanellope chuckled and returned the hug, Gloyd had a point- they had been dating for a while, and with that she knew a few of Gloyd's pranks; some of them were so complex that it impressed her how his mind worked.

Some footsteps came from behind of them. "Hey lovebirds." Called Taffyta, sticking her lollipop out. "I think we arrived, check it out."

They all looked ahead where the land was starting to show. The boat came closer and stopped at an old, worn-out wooden bridge that seemed to be about to collapse in any minute. Everyone grabbed their packs, however, they stood on the boat and kept watching the place.

There was nothing to be seen, except for death trees and fog covering the ground; no matter where they turned their heads, everything looked the same- tones of grey and dark purple fading to black could be appreciated in the scenery, the trees and the branches were still as rocks, and it seemed not even the mist moved. It was quiet, too quiet; the racers could hear their own breathing and the very light rustling of their hair. The wind was chilly yet weak, and it couldn't even move the dry leaves covering what could be seen of the ground because of the thick mist.

Even if they saw a few stars on their way, the sky was now filled of huge purple cotton candy clouds, and not even the moon could be seen through them, leaving the kids with a very reduced range of sight. Spook chirped weakly as Whipcream and Ty-Dye hid behind their owners, not liking this place in the slightest, and they weren't the only ones.

The cheerful mood they had on their way was completely wiped off their codes.

"...Am I the only who's feeling uncomfortable?" Rancis said with a whispering voice, but with the silence of the place, it sounded like he was talking normally.

Taffyta shook her head at his question, looking around. "What's with this place? I thought we would see pumpkins and all that Halloween jazz…" She walked out of the boat with Rancis behind her trail, the bridge giving an eeire creak under their feet. The rest followed after them, and soon they hurried to step on firm land as the bridge just creaked even louder. The boat then took off somewhere, and the sound of the engine rang so loudly in the ambient that they all jumped in surprise.

Gloyd was the first to regain his composure, and held Spook near his chest, as the bat seemed to be afraid of the surroundings and hiding his head on his owner's chest. "...OK, seriously, what is this place?" He looked at Vanellope, confused. "Are you sure we're on the right island?"

"We are, I checked the direction twice." She looked around, trying to recognize anything they have seen on the map back at the castle. "But..."

"But I don't see anything that proves it." Minty stood near her, having alreayd taken a good look. "Just like Taffyta says, there's nothing related to what we saw. Where are the Jack-O-Lanterns? Or the full moon? I don't remeber seeing this much fog either."

Swizzle looked at her, then at the rest of his friends. "Sorta feels like if there's something wrong going on here."

"I just had the same thought." Vanellope mumbled as she stepped in front of them, a slight frown forming. "We need to reach the town quickly, if we find someone in there, they can fill us in."

Rancis looked nervous all of a sudden. "A-are you serious? We're going to pass…" He trailed off and instead pointed to a pathway between the dead trees, which looked more threatening than welcoming over anything else. Everyone looked at the entrance of the forest, and then turned to Vanellope with worried glances. All of them but Gloyd.

He kept staring at the forest, and he couldn't help it, but he felt nostalgic. The way the trees were looming, the fog that hid their roots from sight, had he really seen that before? Gloyd thought about it, but decided to shake the feeling off, maybe he saw something similar in an old horror movie or something, and right now he wasn't interested to know which one it was.

But he was interested in knowing what had happened.

"Look guys." He started, and called their attention. "It's just a forest! We're not in any horror shooting game, this is still Sugar Rush." Gloyd picked his bag and swung it over his shoulder. "I doubt we're in a dangerous zone, but maybe there's something wrong, I say we go check it."

Vanellope smiled a little, sorta glad to have someone at her side. "Well said, Pumpkinhead" He flashed her a grin and she turned to the others. "Remember what my dad told you guys, Turbo blocked this area, and I wouldn't be impressed if he messed more things as well. It's my job to help out and find any damages, but I would be lying if I said I wouldn't feel better about this whole thing if you guys came along." She saw how each one of her firend had a pensive expression, and realized that maybe they were more scared that she at first thought. That is, until Taffyta sighed.

"That's why we came here for, after all." She glanced at the others. "Let's quit whinning and see what we can do, besides, I'd rather check things out here than going back and race like we did today." No one said anything after that as they all agreed and moved into the shadows of the forest.

* * *

"We're lost aren't we." Muttered Rancis.

"That comment won't make us feel any better." Vanellope sighed.

"But really, it's been a while since we entered." Minty said quietly.

A groan from Taffyta. "A while? I would say an hour or so."

The six racers have been walking around the forest for an endless amount of time, but there was still no sight of the town. It was almost pointless to keep walking; the tress were endless and it was impossible to see the sky and use it as a reference to guide themselves, because their long branches were tangled with each other and blocked their sight. The forest was darker because of that as well, and it was a wonder they could tell what was within an arm's length away from their sight.

The walk was very uncomfortable; even the dry leaves cracking under their steps made them flinch despite the little motivational talk they did. They all walked together and very close from each other, as the darkness made them fell vulnerable and were afraid of drifting away from the group. Even Gloyd found himself holding his breath whenever a sound broke into the silence that's been surrounding them every since they have arrived.

"You know? I just realized there isn't anything here, other than trees." Swizzle spoke up, making a few visibly flinch. "Sorry dudes." He quickly apologized.

"It's fine, man." Gloyd let out a sigh. "I guess we're all on edge here... hey, now that you mention it, you're right. There's nothing here." He turned his head to look back at the others. "I haven't heard anything like an animal, just wind and leaves, it's like there's nothing living here."

Rancis seemed uncomfortable. "I hope you aren't coming with your creepy zombie theories or anything like that."

"No I'm not! Besides, that's from when I was six." Gloyd huffed. "I just thought that maybe the island is deserted."

Vanellope looked at him. "I think it's too soon to think that, ya know? We won't know for certain until we arrive." She looked back ahead. "Which should be soon, hopefully."

"It better be." Rancis said, sounding nervous. "I mean, we have been walking for so long, it can't be THAT much far away now, right?"

"Yeah, I'm sure we'll be seeing something in a while." Taffyta tried to reassure him. "Don't panic now, though."

"I-I'm not panicking!" He said, his tone giving away his feeling. "OK, maybe I'm feeling uneasy for being stuck walking here but I'm not-!"

**_CRACK!_**

They all yelped at the sudden noise and stood pressed to each other as much as they could, looking at all directions; the pets were as close as they could to their respective owners, shivering as they were nervous as well. Rancis had hugged Taffyta out of fear, to which the girl could only accept it because she was distracted trying to figure out what was that noise.

Minty gulped. "N-no one stepped on a branch?" She muttered as she gazed at the ground, trying to locate said thing under their feet.

"No." Gloyd hugged Vanellope close. The raven girl's eyes kept darting between the trees. They then heard some leaves moving, but there was no wind to do that.

**_CRACK!_** There is was again, closer this time around.

Rancis was pale. "T-there are things in this forest! I knew this was a bad idea!"

Taffyta tried to locate the sound, and found it once she glanced down. She glared towards a bush right in front of them, shaking lightly, but she could tell there was something hiding in it. "Don't move…" She whispered.

Everyone quickly turned towards the bush, wide eyed and not daring to make any movement, except Rancis. The peanut butter cup racer was shaking like a leaf right behind of his friends. "W-what is it?" He asked, peeking out from Taffyta's shoulder.

"I'm not sure-"

Two golden orbs lit from behind the leaves. They stopped breathing. Suddenly, something jumped out of the bush straight at them!

**"AHHH!" **They all screamed as they held each other even closer, hoping for the worst thing to happen.

Silence filled each one of their senses; no one dared to talk or open their eyes for a very long while… until a little sound broke that moment of tension.

_"…Meowr?"_

Minty snapped her eyes open in surprise and looked down, the rest following, and right in front of them was a little black cat, wearing a red ribbon and watching them, with his head tilted to a side innocently.

"…Are you serious?" She said as she moved slightly away from Swizzle, who just looked curiously at the little animal.

Gloyd loosened his grip on Vanellope, laughing lowly, a bit awkwardly. "Ahh... man, never thought a cat could scare me like that." Spook let out a sigh, and so did the other pets, before looking over at the new animal.

Vanellope let out a sigh as well, feeling her rushing code calming down. "Gee, what a troublemaker. At least we know there ARE people here." She kneeled down in front of him, smiling lightly. The cat stared at her, but did nothing.

She raised her hand and caressed his head carefully. "We are so paranoid in this forest you almost gave us a heart attack, buddy."

_"…Sorry about that."_

Everyone froze once again, and they slowly fixed their gazes down on the cat. Vanellope moved her hand away, looking at him with wide eyes. "Did... did you just...?"

"I heard your voices, and came to fin you." The cat watched their shocked expressions for a moment, then backed off a few steps. "You shouldn't be here." He began to glow a faith red color.

The cat's body started to morph right in front of their eyes.

"What the fudge!?" Swizzle quickly backed off, shocked.

Vanellope hurriedly got up and Gloyd stepped right next to her as they all watched the unexpected event with unblinking eyes. When the light faded there was no cat to be found, but instead a boy that seemed younger than them, wearing a black cat hood with ears and tail included. Unlike his 'cat form', he had dark orange curly hair, aquamarine eyes, fair skin and freckles between his eyes. No one said anything, as the racers were trying to wrap their heads around the oddity of it all.

But the strange boy had no intention of letting them think about it too much. "My name is Rufus Pathcross." He introduced himself, looking serious, but there was a trace of concern in his expression. "You need to get out of here right now."

* * *

**A/N: So this is it! I hope you enjoyed the first chapter! Don't worry, next part will follow up soon!**

**So? I bet you found the cameos, I'm not really good at hiding some eater eggs, but I'll still put them here!**

**1\. The names Litwack mentioned as winners: ANJ (Sparks-Sparta), VIC (Me) and V-S (V-Striker, also known as HardWrapping!)**

**2\. Spook and the Sugar Pets! I had to add them, seeing I'm not really paying any attention to the little bat! Besides, I'm pretty sure I never described well enough how his relationship with Gloyd was like.**

**3\. Sweet Tooth Racers! I mean, c'mon, HardWrapping is just awesome! I'm pretty sure the whole WiR fandom here at Fanfiction knows his story 'Rival Racing'! Not only that but he included little Spook in two of his stories! Aside of a cool writer, he's a good roleplayer like my buddy Sparks-Sparta, and lemme tell you I have a lot of fun when we RP, so thanks a lot for your patience! **

**With all that said, until next time!**

**~DreamerAwaken (Vida-chan)**

_EDIT: 06/07/2016. Wow, I am the master of OOC-ness, I have never been so ashamed of myself like this._


	3. The Past, the Present, the same Pain

**A/N: Hey guys! This will be a short information- I'll be uploading references for the characters that will appear in my story! Go check my DeviantArt page if you're interested, my name's DreamerAwken :)**

**With that said, I hope you enjoy this update!**

* * *

The racers could do nothing but stare at the boy that just showed up, telling them to return to their island. Something was up and they all knew that, and it was bad by the looks of it.

However, obsessed to know what was going on to take responsibility of it, Vanellope stood her ground.

"What do you mean we should leave?" She asked "We just got here!"

Rufus Pathcross, as he was called, just glared at her "And you guys are lucky that you're still in one piece! But you need to go back- this place is not longer safe!"

Gloyd frowned with Spook on his shoulder "But there must be a reason for it, isn't it?" Truly, he felt really disappointed of how different this all was compared to the picture they saw back at the castle, but just like Vanellope, he wanted to know what was happening.

"Whatever it is, it's not really the visitor's business! This is not a resort of some sort!" The boy was showing sights of not trusting the racers.

However, he was young, and that might give them some points in favor.

With this in mind, Minty looked at Rufus and raised her hands to signal him to calm down "Please listen to us, we came from Sugar Rush, and this land was unlocked for us recently-"

The boy widened his eyes "Wait, Sugar Rush? You guys are the main icons?"

"Just a few of them." Taffyta put her hands on her hips "The rest is back home."

"As I was saying." Minty frowned slightly, she hated being interrupted "We saw a map of this island, but it's nothing we thought we would see- and it's clear something must be very wrong since you keep telling us to return."

Vanellope nodded next to her and pointed at Rufus "Look cat boy, we want to help! Is there's something wrong with this place, it's my work as President to try and fix it."

Rufus looked at her doubtfully "I know who you are and what you can do, in fact, all the island have heard about the main icons." The racers looked surprised at this "But maybe it won't be enough because this is too serious!"

"How so?" Gloyd looked at Rufus hoping for an answer, but he just shook his head.

"I can't just say it if you can't do anything about it." The boy looked away, but they saw he was starting to doubt his own words. Minty smiled to herself, it seemed her idea worked.

Swizzle stepped in front "How can you be so sure about that? Maybe we can solve this out… whatever it is!" Ty-Dye screeched in approval and Rufus looked at the duo.

Rancis, who didn't say anything at first, huffed "Let's be honest, we won't leave, me included." He crossed his arms "This place creeps me out, yes, but we won't get a 'no' as an answer if the matter is that bad; no matter where you see it, you don't have much to say here."

Rufus looked at Rancis, then at the rest of the crew in complete silence "… Alright." The boy with the cat hood sighed in defeat "...Let's get out of the forest first then, after all, the town is the other way around."

Everyone stood stiff as rocks for mere seconds.

"WHAT!?" Rancis widened his eyes and raised his arms "You mean we were walking through this forest all this time and we were taking the wrong way!?"

Rufus tilted his head, but with a slight mischievous smile "We like to prank people after all; to welcome them 'nicely', we make them walk through the Chain Forest."

Gloyd looked around "Chain Forest?" He looked at Rufus "Why is it called like that?"

"Oh, this forest is a loop; no matter where you go, the same trees will show up over and over, like a chain! While the exit…" He pointed right behind of them "…is just mere meters away, but since no one dares to look behind they can never tell this, and instead keep walking for hours with no process."

The kids looked behind of them; indeed, the exit was not too far away from where they were standing. Most of them groaned, though Gloyd looked impressed- that was a well pulled prank.

"…At least we know the programming is working fine…" Muttered Vanellope with Taffyta nodding her head next to the President, before they all walked out of the forest with Rufus guiding them. They followed him to yet another path that was very well hidden behind an old tree's trunk, the whole track was as quiet as the forest itself.

Gloyd looked at Rufus who was in front of him, his thoughts wandered as the prankster looked at his friends while they made their way to the town- just what was going on? Why was the boy so reluctant to accept their help?

And a thought that crossed their minds at once. Was it _that_ bad?

It made them flinch slightly.

Wanting to break the uncomfortable silence, Swizzle spoke up "So, Ruff… are you some kind of a cat hybrid? You don't really look like a racer for me." The mentioned boy looked back at the darevil.

"Actually, I'm not a cat hybrid or anything." He replied, smiling a little "I'm able to change forms as a little animation I have by default, but I'm a racer alright, a 'bad luck' racer."

"A what?" Minty blinked confused as they crossed a short stone bridge; judging by the marks on the ground below it, it seemed a river once flow there, but now it was completely dry.

Rufus smiled a bit wider and he jumped on a few thick roots from a huge tree "A bad luck racer. You see, it's one of the categories we use here." He changed back to a cat and turned to the kids "As you may know, black cats crossing your path are a signal of bad luck- I just change my form when the player who choose me wins or loses the game."

"Does that work at the racing track?" Asked Taffyta, seeming slightly interested in that subject.

"...Well, yeah, depends on the circumstances; most times I need the help of my character item." He turned back to normal and fixed his hood, looking rather uncomfortable "To make it clearer for you… we're just five racers, all of us different in a way, but also similar- we together represent Halloween." At this his voice faded slightly, but no one seemed to notice "There are the 'Bad luck' racers, the 'Halloween icons' racers and one 'Fear' racer in our team."

Vanellope got to his side with Whipcream on her hood "And who are the other guys called?"

"Yeah, and how do their categories work like?" The pumpkin headed racer was also curious, all of them forgetting about the problem for a few moments.

However, this 'problem' was about to show up.

Rufus was so concentrated in the talking he didn't notice they arrived at the entrance of town; the paths of the small place were made of purple rock candies, the Germany-like houses were made of white chocolate covered waffler cookies with dark chocolate wood decorating them, and there was an abandoned fountain at the middle of the plaza, with tall light posts decorated with metallic flowers lighting the fountain with their weak lights and broken glasses; the weirdest thing about the town was that the houses had no decorations for Halloween. But they had a reason for that.

As he was about to answer their questions, a terrifying sound make him gasp and quickly stop his tracks with the racers behind of him.

It was a deep, raspy groaning sound.

And it was coming closer to them.

"H-hide!" He said, looking panicked as he ducked to a nearby boulder that looked like a broken statue of some sort. Not wanting to find out what was scaring him, Vanellope and the others followed him and hid themselves behind the huge boulder.

None of them spoke or asked what was going on, because the groaning just kept getting louder and louder, until it seemed to stop in one spot.

Trembling, Rufus poked his head out. And he seemed like he saw the last thing he'd wished for "Oh no…" He whispered fearfully "It reached town…"

"Who?" Asked Swizzle, Rufus quickly shushed him as he turned around and sat, he then whispered even lower.

"T-the Silhouette…"

Everyone blinked, completely clueless of what he was talking about. Vanellope decided to peek out with both Gloyd and Swizzle, who left their pets safely on the ground, while Taffyta, Rancis and Minty just sat next to them, not daring to look.

What the three kids saw left them paralyzed in fear.

_'The Silhouette'_ Rufus mentioned was a monster; it was giving its back to the racers, but it was more than enough to make them feel vulnerable.

The creature was probably three times as tall as they were, more or less Ralph's stature, but instead of having huge arms this monster was skinny, _very_ skinny; they could swear the marks at the sides of it were its rib bones. Its body was… strange; it was black, with dark purple lightnings, but it seemed to not being completely solid as some mysterious black smoke surrounded most part of its figure, with a small portion of its body dissolving to create it. The proportions were also irregular, and they were constantly changing forms.

Both Vanellope and Swizzle quickly sat, they looked at each other in shock before glancing at their friends, and then they turned to Rufus "What… in the Arcade is that!?" Vanellope whispered very quietly, but it was noticeable she was having a hard time holding back her voice.

"W-we don't know!" The cat boy whispered back as he hugged his knees "That thing never showed up around here, but it's very dangerous! And that is the main reason of our troubles!"

While they were talking to Rufus trying to know what they were supposed to do now with the creature near them, Gloyd couldn't take his gaze off the monster.

There was something off about him, he couldn't… make out the words Vanellope was saying, and he couldn't move to sit back either.

The brunet just kept watching quietly, feeling a strange attraction towards the Silhouette.

_'Don't… lis… ar…'_

"Huh…?"

Gloyd blinked, did it said something?

_'…on't… lia…'_

There it was again, he was sure of that. The raspy voice was slowly getting into his head.

But… what was it trying to _say?_

Quietly, and seemingly to be in a deep trance, Gloyd walked out of his hiding spot, and walked straight at the monster.

None of the racers noticed his absence at first as they were trying to make up a plan to escape safely, but Spook saw his master leaving their side and chirped at them in desperation.

As they all turned to where the prankster was once standing, they saw Gloyd was already standing a few steps behind the creature.

"Gloyd…!" Swizzle called after him, but his voice was so low the brunet couldn't hear him. Spook and Ty-Dye were flapping their wings madly and Whipcream covered her eyes with her ears.

Vanellope and Rufus were equally panicked, their eyes wide open "What are you doing!?" She whispered scared.

"It's no use…" Rufus looked petrified "T-the Silhouette… that thing is able to put people in trance!"

"What!?" Rancis squeaked out.

Gloyd ignored all their desperate calls; he slowly raised his arm towards the creature as to touch it. He could no longer feel the world around him as the stared at the skinny creature, the prankster was feeling as light as a feather, and he almost couldn't register the ground under his feet.

"…What were you saying…?" He asked in a whisper.

The Silhouette turned around at neck-breaking speed, in fact, its whole neck twisted in a way that made an unholy sound of cracking bones to allow it to face the young prankster. It had no visible eyes, but there was smoke coming out from where they were supposed to be; the mouth was of a liquid appearance, and it was dripping some dark fluids.

It hissed lowly at Gloyd, and raised its arms towards him as it turned its body around.

"Gloyd!" Vanellope screamed as she couldn't keep it in any longer, and it was able to snap Gloyd out of the trance.

"W-what!" Gloyd shook his head, just to look up in time to see the creature throwing over himself, releasing an ear-bleeding screech that paralyzed him in his spot.

**"KIYAAAAAH!"**

He shut his eyes tightly and covered his face with his arms in a weak attempt of protection.

All the racers shouted after him, Spook was screeching wildly, but he couldn't move out of the way.

Gloyd waited for the impact…

…but it never came.

Blinking confused, he slowly looked up.

The monster was _there,_ millimeters away from his body; its black, smelly mouth was open enough to fit the prankster's head in, and it was frozen in a pose that clearly showed its intentions to kill the brunet.

But it didn't.

Instead, the Silhouette began to drop its arms slightly to a side. It closed its mouth, and faced Gloyd once more in absolute silence.

No one could see it, but Gloyd could swear he saw a shocked expression on the monster's face.

And he could listen its frantic breathing.

_'Y… ouuu…'_ It hissed.

Gloyd looked up at it and gulped; his own knees were ready to give up.

It hissed louder _'Ouu… Yy**you…!'**_ The creature's breathing was near out of control, as if it was near from having a heart attack.

The monster brought its claw like hands to its face, scratching it badly, and then it arched it body back in an abnormal way.

_**"KIYAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"**_

And with that, the Silhouette dissolved to what seemed to be a thick black mist, to then leave the town in a rush.

All the racers stood there, shocked, and unblinking.

Gloyd's legs grew tired and he quickly sat on the floor, but then he felt his head spinning badly.

Next think they knew. Gloyd had fainted and collapsed to the ground.

* * *

"Damn…" A boy grunted as a few cans with several types of food fell from his arms.

He hissed and picked them up again to run towards a certain direction: an old house situated in the middle of the forest. He and a few other survivors were living there, they were waiting for him right now, and he had to head back before-

_'…Viper?'_

He stopped. 'Viper' began to look around frantically with wide eyes, that voice…!

"Maria?" The boy turned his head to all sides "Maria! Where…!?"

_'Right… here…'_

Viper looked to his right, and widened his eyes even more at the sight of a beloved someone.

Running after her and leaving the cans scattered on the ground, he began to follow the owner of the voice through the forest "Maria…! Pleassse wait! Come back!"

_…_

**_SLASH!_**

Silence soon returned to the always still forest.

* * *

A loud bagging noise was heard on her door, followed by a loud shout calling her "SPELLINA! Open! Open up!"

She groaned, what did that dumb boy did just now? Kicking away a few old books lying around, the female racer stomped her way to the door, and opened it in a fast swung "What!?"

However, the sight she was greeted with made her understand the rush.

Right at her door, Rufus and some unknown racers were supporting a boy who seemed unconscious "Spelly! Help us here!" Said the cat boy worriedly.

"You know where to go!" She said sternly as she moved aside "Go lay him in a couch and I will try to make some herbal tea- you better have not attracted that _'thing'_ too!"

As they made their way inside, he answered "Actually, this guy scared it back at town!" She looked shocked.

Rufus, knowing his way through the house, went to a nearby bookshelf and picked one normal looking red book, but it turned out to be a switch. As it clicked, the whole bookshelf turned to a side, showing a secret hallway that lead somewhere underground.

Not losing any time, the racers went through there. It was dark, and it only became darker when Spellina closed the secret door. As they made their way just by a few more steps however, they saw a comforting light- a fireplace was lighting a small room with even more books, empty cans of food and a few blankets lying near huge pillows.

"Here…" Vanellope helped Rancis to lay Gloyd on a couch near the pillows. She looked worriedly at the prankster before turning to Rufus with a more serious expression "Ok, I think there's something you must explain here."

Rufus sat extremely close to the fireplace, laying like a cat on a small pillow "I told you this wasn't going to be so easy…"

"Easy!?" Rancis snapped at him "You should have at least told us about that monster!"

**"SHUT UP BLONDIE!"**

All of them cringed, and slowly turned to the new face. It was a girl dressed as a witch, with the nastiest glare they had ever seen- nastier than Calhoun's at least "Only **_I_ **can snap at Rufus for being himself!"

She was wearing a big black and white dress with a big matching hat and boots; she was also carrying a crossed brown bag. The girl had dark brown hair with light brown highlights, light green eyes and her skin was fairer than Rufus', and just like him she had no blush.

"Sorry for the problems Spelly…" Rufus' cat hood lowered its ears "I, um… I tried to tell them to leave but…"

She however crossed her arms and sneered at Vanellope "I don't blame you, six against one?" Spellina frowned "What are you doing here? We have enough problems here if you haven't noticed!"

Vanellope looked nervous, this girl looked like she was about to throw the heaviest book to their heads "I'm the… President of Sugar Rush" She started "We came here after hearing this land was unlocked! At first we just wanted to introduce ourselves but…"

"Lemme guess, this wasn't as you expected and you wanted to play heroes convincing Rufus you could help?" She raised her eyebrow tauntingly as Rufus scratched the back of his neck. The racers looked at each other, how did she know that?

The cat boy looked nervous between the Sugar Rush racers and his best friend "Well, at least we're in a save spot, how about if… we introduce ourselves for starters?"

"Agreed, seeing we'll be staying longer than we expected…" Minty glanced at Gloyd's sleeping frame.

Vanellope sighed "Well, I go first." She looked at Spellina "My name's Vanellope Von Schweetz, and this guys here are a few of the racers from the Sugar Rush kingdom." She gestured at her friends, and then Whipcream jumped to her head "And this is my pet Whipcream."

"I'm Taffyta Muttonfudge, one of the tops." The pink girl put her lollipop in her mouth with a hand in her hip.

"Rancis Fluggerbutte.r" He fixed the twirl of his hair, but unlike when he was at home, he looked more anxious than cocky "I'm also on the top spots..."

Minty bowed slightly "I'm Minty Zaki."

Swizzle waved slightly with his macaw on his shoulder "Yo, name's Swizzle Malarkey, this guy's Ty-Dye…" He looked at the last boy worriedly "And… he's Gloyd Orangeboar, one of my closest friends."

Gloyd just keep sleeping with Spook cuddled on his chest. The little bat looked up at Spellina and chirped weakly. This made her drop her guard; as much as she disliked pretty much everything, Spellina had a very weak spot for animals.

She walked near a teapot and poured some boiling water in a cup before facing them again "My name is Spellina Magicwhisper; I'm a 'Halloween Icon' racer." She then walked over Gloyd with the tea in her hands, which released a strong smell of herbal leaves.

"Help me here would you?" She looked at Swizzle. The adrenaline seeker boy got to Gloyd's side and Vanellope picked Spook "I need him to sit or something so he can take a sip of this medicine."

"How about this?" Swizzle put a pillow under Gloyd's head and tilted it slightly upwards "We can't sit him in this state."

Spellina just nodded, and got the tea near Gloyd's mouth. She then poured a small quantity of it into his mouth.

Vanellope looked from her side with a worried Spook"Is he supposed to drink that?"

"No." She replied as she set the cup somewhere nearby and pet Spook under his chin "He's supposed to feel it, but don't worry batty, he'll wake up very soon."

All the racers looked at each other confused, but Spook was able to hear a fair gurgling sound coming from his owner. Suddenly Gloyd snapped his eyes open, making them gasp out of surprise.

The prankster quickly sat up and spat the tea, making a disgusted sound afterwards "Ah, sherbet!" He cursed and cleaned his tongue with his sleeve "What is that thing!?"

"Told you." The witch racer shrugged as the rest of the crew just blinked, expect Rufus who snickered "Good one, Spelly!"

"Squeak!" Spook chirped overjoyed as he wiggled free from Vanellope's arms and threw himself over Gloyd's chest, snuggling close to his dear owner. The boy looked down at Spook and hugged him back with a light smile, to then see his surroundings.

"Where are we?" He looked at his friends confused.

Swizzle put his hand on the prankster's shoulder "Dude, you alright? You fainted after that monster left!"

"What were you thinking Orangeboar!?" Vanellope glared at him, but she was deeply relieved he was conscious "That thing would've turned you into scrap code!"

Rufus quickly stepped in front of the raven girl "You don't have to have to blame him! The Silhouette is able to do that!"

"How come?" Taffyta looked at Gloyd, who seemed to don't understand a single thing going one.

The witch racer spoke up "It can attract people to possibly devour them later." Even with all the shocked stares she got, Spellina opened her bag and took out a very old book, it had tears on the covers and the pages were yellow, as if it was exposed to the sun for days.

She moved a few pages and read out loud "Shall one stare at its blackest soul, shall them became lost in its void." The witch racer looked up, a more serious expression on her features "But there's something troubling me- Rufus" The mentioned looked at her "Is it true that you were saying? This boy scared the creature while you were goofing off at town?"

He quickly nodded his head "Right in front of our eyes Spelly! Didn't we!?" Rufus turned to the racers, ignoring the insult his friend gave him, and they all nodded their head slowly, but Gloyd just seemed more confused now.

"The question is: How?" Spellina got near Gloyd, who seemed nervous under her taunting stare "Listen up, that creature has been hunting us for years, and a few of us have disappeared already! How could someone like you be left without a single scratch after approaching it!?"

Gloyd raised his hands in defense "Whoa witchy-!"

"Spellina" She glared.

"Spellina, I don't know!" He looked at his friends and then back at her "Like Rufus said! I was under its' powers or whatever and next thing I know the thing scrambled away!"

Not finding any solid information, she groaned and put her hand on her forehead in frustration "Of all possibly people who could have helped us…!"

"Hey." Vanellope glitched in front of her "Monster or not, we're here, and we promised we would try and help!" She frowned "At least don't blame it all on us!"

Minty stepped in front "But we don't know what's going on here, and if you keep being so reluctant to explain, we won't get anywhere!"

"I'm surprised they still want to lend a hand to these guys…" Muttered Rancis, Swizzle looked him and shrugged "We have a bad reputation with the unlockables I guess…"

The witch and the cat racers looked at the kids, then at each other, as if they communicated via their minds. After a while that seemed to have lasted an eternity, Spellina groaned "Fine… but it's such a long story…"

"Please Spelly…" Begged Rufus with shiny eyes "Long or not, it's a story! And you're one good story-teller!"

"This is not a bed time story Rufus!" She scolded him, but he turned into a cat to look at her adorably, hitting her weakest spot "…Everyone please get a comfy spot or whatever while I find the page…"

They did as instructed. Rancis and Taffyta sat on a fluffy grey blanket near the fireplace with Rufus next to them on his pillow near the fire. Swizzle and Minty sat on a huge pillow near the couch, bouncing slightly, while Vanellope sat next to Gloyd on the sofa with their pets cuddled on their laps.

Just a few minutes later, Spellina seemed to have found the page, but instead of start reading it she left the book in a coffee table at the center of the room and searched for something in her bag. She then took out a small black velvet bag; the witch themed racer poured a tiny quantity of a strange looking powder on her hand, and then she threw it towards the fire, which changed from bright orange to light blue.

"What's that for?" Rancis looked shocked at the fire, but Rufus just shushed him.

Spellina picked another small quantity, and this time around she threw it over her book. It glowed with the same color as the fire. She finally sat away from the rest of the curious racers and lifted her arms.

"This situation we're living right now is not recent; all this took place in our island seven years ago…" She moved her hands, and the fire suddenly started to circle around the book. The racers gasped lowly at this "Now I'll start explaining…"

_'Long time ago, the peace and the pranks were an everyday thing in our lives.'_ Spellina's voice echoed in their heads as the flames changed their shape to lots of candy people and kids playing around _'As a land of Halloween, everything was just candy and games for us islanders, and we enjoyed every bit of it as we thought our life was nothing without following the traditions of Halloween, but all this was under the control of our Mayor…_

_…His name was Duskus Crowmaster, the Poet of the Night'_

The shape of a bigger man appeared, making the other shapes disappear as the left fire surrounded him as shapes of crows _'He was powerful over us, but we never got to see him outside of his house. The man worked hours indoors to make our island the jolly place it once was, and was idolized for generations… but one day, a dark truth was found.'_

The fire changed once more, this time with the Mayor, standing in front of what seemed to be… a crib.

_'It was discovered our Mayor experimented with his own people, us racers'_

"What!" Vanellope's eyes widened as the shape of the Mayor seemed to be messing with the code, to then make the baby inside the crib start glitching violently.

"There's a reason of why I can turn into a cat during races…that's not part of my original code." Muttered Rufus, they all stared at him wide eyed.

Spellina stopped the story telling "The Mayor was obsessed about creating the perfect racers for the perfect island." She frowned "Me and the other racers were part of his experiments; he messed with our codes when we were 'newborns' as far as the program can tell us." The witch racer pointed to her magic "We can do… some tricks ourselves now, but it's not ours in it's totality."

"That's sick!" Swizzle looked mad "Why would he even consider doing something like that to his own racers!?"

"Can't we just keep listening to the story?" Taffyta looked at Swizzle angrily. Spellina cleared her throat and began to move her hands again, and the image of the tortured kid soon changed into a much bigger image; a war.

_'As the truth was found…' _The fire shapes were now fully detailed people, with rage filling their eyes getting closer to the racers, their blue light was radiating an unknown strength_ 'The islanders wanted to go against their leader for his unmistakable crimes against them. They were able to find us at the castle and protected us as the war erupted hours later.'_

The fire just got brighter, almost blinding them, and then they saw the violent image of the Mayor being killed and tortured by his people.

_'Their wrath was so strong, that one of them found their way towards the code room.'_ Flames moved around the kids, turning into code boxes, with the biggest one being pulled by its cables.

_'And they deleted his code from the game, forever.'_

The box began to glitch as all the connections were pulled off, until it was destroyed by the islander using his lance, the bits of what was left of the box soon disappeared from sight.

Rancis looked shocked "O-oh gob…"

Spellina changed the image once more that showed the mansion destroyed in a few places, and the islanders celebrating their victory. They were all so… happy; holding each other and screaming at the top of their lungs.

_'With the abusive Mayor gone for good, our people thought peace would eventually rule our island… but they were dead wrong…_

_…There was something else that showed up.'_

At the last thing, a new fire shape was added behind the others

_'They called it The Silhouette.'_

The shape of the monster raised its arms and extinguished most of the islanders, while a few last ran away carrying the baby racers. The fire then concentrated in one place, to then light brightly once more and forming the shape of the Silhouette, making the racers hug the one next to them out of shock and fear.

"And this monster have been hunting us ever since the war." Spellina finished, she moved the fire back to where it belonged, and the room returned to normal as the fire changed from blue to orange.

No one said anything, so Rufus changed back into his normal form "We… don't know how it appeared, it just showed up unexpectedly."

Vanellope looked at him "B-but isn't there a reason of why that Duskus guy started this?"

"I don't know." Rufus rubbed his arm "We only know what's written on the book, and it only says the Mayor wanted to create the perfect racers…"

"But… doesn't that mean that 'thing' is a racer too?" Taffyta was still being hugged by Rancis, trying to have this information sucked in.

"There's no way to tell…" The witch racer shook her head as she picked her book "As far as we know, only the racers were the ones the Mayor choose for his experiments, and we are just five; the creature is left out."

Gloyd looked really uncomfortable now, but there was something else bugging him "Say, that book…"

Spellina looked at him "I found it one day in the forest." She looked at the book "It had no title, but I took it anyways. When I got back here I checked it, and I was really surprised to find such information about the war here." She showed it to Gloyd "But this was not printed, it was written by hand."

Both the prankster and the President looked at the pages, she was right, this was handwriting "Then it means a guy that survived the attack wrote it? But, how could they know about the experiments? Were they a spy?" Gloyd looked at Spellina, who just shook her head again.

"I don't know." She began to flip a few pages, and showed it again the two racers, pointing at a certain firm "The book was written by 'someone who goes by the name of the moon', it's the only clue we have got."

"Who's that person?" Minty looked over.

Rufus stood next to Spellina "We don't know that either! Me and Spelly searched about that guy in all the books we have here one day, but nothing came up."

Swizzle groaned as he leaned his head back"It's official, this will be harder than we thought."

"WAY harder than we thought…" Vanellope sighed, but then something clicked in her mind "Wait a minute, did you said you were five?"

"A few friends have disappeared thanks to that thing." Rufus looked down "Now it just Spellina, Viper and me."

"…Viper?" Gloyd blinked.

"Viper Hissfangz." Spellina looked at him, but they noticed she was worried now "He's the only 'Fear' racers as he's based after snakes. Viper is older than us, and faster, so he's usually out searching food and supplies for us…"

The racers looked at the empty cans scattered on the floor, then at the Halloween racers "But… where is he now?" Asked Rancis, this made both Rufus and Spellina to look at each other in worry and shock at they realized something.

"He… haven't returned for a while…" Rufus muttered "In fact, he left way earlier before you showed up…"

Minty widened her eyes "Does that means that…?"

**"…FUDGE!"** Spellina's scream was so loud the pets had to hide "You told me you saw that creature, didn't you!?"

Everyone widened their eyes.

"Viper must be in danger!" Without his wanting, the boy turned into a cat and began to dash all across the room in a flash, sending a few papers flying behind his trail **_"Whatshouldwedowhatshouldwedowhatshouldwedo!?"_**

The racers could do nothing but follow him with their gaze, until Gloyd stood up and picked him up in a swift movement.

"I'll go to find him." He said.

"What!?" Everyone looked at him as if he was crazy.

Vanellope glitched in front of him "No way Gloyd! You can't just say that after we encountered that thing!"

"But it didn't do anything, right?"

The President blinked as Gloyd left Rufus on the ground.

Gloyd looked at her and his friends "Look guys, I just fainted because that thing scared the bits off me, but not because it harmed me." Spook got to his shoulder looking worried, and the brunet picked his bat and hugged him to his chest to calm him down "If that creature is so scared of myself, then that means I'll be safe, don't you think?"

Spellina looked down in thought "Makes sense, if it's true… then you can move freely unlike any of us." She looked at him "I'll love to know why though, what's in your code that makes the Silhouette back off?"

"…Who knows" Swizzle looked at his friend "But truth is, you're one lucky guy- I'm definitely not going to set a foot out there again!"

"Me neither, and you guys?" Minty looked at both Taffyta and Rancis, the two racers looked at each other, and then they quickly shook their heads.

"I may be ready for anything in the racetrack, but not in this case." The pink racer said.

Gloyd looked at Spook and set him in the sofa, leaving his pumpkin hat next to the bat "Then that's it." He stood up and glanced over them "Then I'll-"

"WE will be going." Said Vanellope, making everyone to look at her "C'mon, I can glitch my way out, remember?"

Rufus then stepped in front "And I'm pretty much obliged to go, besides, you guys wouldn't even know where to look first." Spellina looked at him and nodded lightly.

"Then it's settled." She said "You three will head out to find our friend, I'll go open the entrance." The witch racer left after that.

Looking at their friends once more, Vanellope spoke "We will be back as soon as possible."

"Please be careful guys." Said Swizzle worriedly as he carried both Whipcream and Spook in his arms with Ty-Dye on his hat, the pets looking just as worried.

Minty and Taffyta gave them a thumps up, and Rancis just nodded at them, but they all looked very nervous. Sighing, Gloyd looked at Vanellope and Rufus, and then they headed to the exit where Spellina was waiting.

She opened the door and muttered a '_Be safe, Ruffy.'_ before they left.

As they walked outside the hidden house and Rufus turned into a cat to start searching, they wished to know what really was going on.

But only he who went by the name of the moon knew that answer.

* * *

**A/N: So, what do you think guys? The next update is still in process, but I may finish it this weekend.**

**Thanks for reading, reviews are always welcomed!**

**~DreamerAwaken**


	4. He who goes by the 'Name of the Moon'

**A/N: OK I LIED, I TOOK FAR LONGER THAN I EXPECTED! Apologizes for such a late update! I don't really have any excuses, other than the fact I wasn't very motivated to type stuff, however I was able to push through the writer's block!**

**I hope you enjoy this new installment, remember to leave a review!**

* * *

"Come on guys, don't stay behind."

"Hey, you got four legs!"

_"Shh! Gloyd!"_

The three kids were making their way through the dark forest at a fast pace, it's been hardly an hour since they left Spellina's house. So many thoughts were filling the two Sugar Rush avatars' minds after everything they heard about the land- a mayor using his own islanders as test subjects? That alone brought up too many questions.

The main one being, where was Viper?

Rufus sniffed the ground as he kept waking at a very fast rhythm, which was understandable- no one wouldn't be in a hurry to find their friend who was lost in a forest where a monster was also hiding at. To avoid the last mentioned thing, Gloyd was walking behind of Vanellope and Rufus as they thought it would be a good idea in case the creature approached them from behind; and in the other way around, Vanellope would just pick Rufus and glitch somewhere safer, so they would be out of danger in both cases.

Or so they hoped.

Vanellope looked at Rufus as they tried to keep up with the feline "Do you pick anything? It's been a while now."

He kept sniffing "No… wait." The cat then stopped abruptly, and raised his nose up in the air to keep sniffing, this making the raven girl to stop her tracks but also making Gloyd collide on her. She turned on him with a dull look as the boy just scratched the back of his head.

"What is it?" Gloyd hoped the boy found something to end the uncomfortable situation. Rufus' tail suddenly puffed and he started to run away from them "Hey!"

"Come on! Quick!" The cat called after them as he was slowly disappearing from their sight. Not wanting to stay far behind, the two racers caught up with him thanks to Vanellope's glitching and keep running to see where Rufus was guiding them.

"Is that him?" She asked as they jumped over some rock candies forming a new rocky path. Rufus just panted out as he sneaked around the rocks to avoid hurting himself "I'm not sure!"

The pumpkin headed boy looked puzzled before almost tripping "Whoa-! What is that even supposed to mean!?" He quickly regained his balance and caught up with the others.

After jumping another set of rocks, the path began to spread and formed a new landscape. Instead of having trees growing everywhere, these were lined a few meters away from the rock candy path, though the tones of grey and dark purple preserved. Gloyd seemed to recognize that appearance from their land "Is this a… racing track?" He looked around and saw that far away from where they were standing there was a cliff with a huge windmill on the top.

The cat boy kept sniffing the ground franticly "Yes, but that's not important!" He looked up at them "I sense his smell! Viper was here!" Looking somewhere else, Rufus saw something at the distance. He ran towards it and when he reached it, he sat down "Oh no…"

"What?" Both Vanellope and Gloyd got to his side, and they saw a few cans scattered in front of the cat "What's wrong with those?" Vanellope kneeled next to Rufus, who had his ears dropped down.

"…He was coming home." He pointed to the cans with his paw weakly "T-those are the ones he always gets for me and Spellina…"

Gloyd seemed to understand as he looked at him sadly, and then put his hand on the cat's head "Don't lose faith just yet."

"He's right." Vanellope encouraged the cat "Rufus, if he was holding these, then that means his smell is on them!" She picked one can "Sniff it buddy! Lead the way!"

Feeling new motivation and energy, he sniffed the can for a few seconds "Here!" He looked to their right, were a bush showed sights of being stomped on "Viper must have gone that way!" He ran towards the new discovered path with the two racers stepping on the back of his paws, literally "Ouch! Watch it!"

"Sorry!"

They kept running through dead bushes and jumping over huge roots, but it didn't last long. Just a few meters away from where they started Rufus stopped and began to sniff the ground, calm at first, but then it seemed something was wrong as he kept turning from side to side in less than a blink of an eye "I can't be…" He muttered and turned around sharply to smell the can once more, he returned to sniff the ground "Oh, no, no, no!" He said panicked.

Vanellope gave the can to Gloyd as she looked at the cat "What's wrong now?"

Rufus looked at her, his disbelief returning in full "The smell ends here! I can't sense it anywhere else!"

The President looked shocked "Are you serious!?" She began to look around, not finding anything like footsteps or a track to follow "N-now what!? Should we head back?"

"No! I have to find Viper!" He shouted back, this leading into a discussion between the two about deciding what to do.

In both cases, they had their nerves at peak- and the fact the monster would show up once more just made it worse.

As they kept discussing, Gloyd glanced at the can that contained pumpkin pudding; what should they do now? He was feeling as lost and stressed as his friends did, but what good would it do if he joined in? Sighing, and making sure they weren't paying attention to him, Gloyd opened the can- maybe a snack would make him think clearly.

However, as he sniffed the bright orange substance, the boy widened his eyes slightly.

He saw something.

_..._

_A field filled with the biggest, most sparkly pumpkins he had ever seen. _

_They covered a whole landscape with grinning Jack-O-Lanterns and golden lights reflecting on the sugar sparkles._

_He then heard giggling, his own giggling, but a much younger version of it- and there was someone else, laughing next to him._

_Everything ended as the picture of the full moon showed up._

_..._

Gloyd blinked several times, before looking at the can once more, and leaving it over a nearby rock.

He was feeling light headed, just like back on town.

But this time it was different, he could still feel his surroundings, and the boy had the feeling… someone was showing him a path, or telling them to go somewhere.

Trusting this odd feeling for a second, he looked ahead, and found a clue they all seemed to have skipped.

"Rufus, look at that!" He pointed to a nearby tree standing a few bushes ahead of them.

It had a large slash across it.

"What about it?" The raven girl blinked "Some animal must have done that..."

Gloyd shook his head, there was something about it and he knew it; he walked towards the tree carrying Rufus under his arm, and then he lifted the cat to face the slash "I think you should sniff it."

"Um…" The black cat looked confused, but still did as told "…This is weird."

Vanellope walked next to them "How so?"

Rufus kept sniffing, and then snorted as he rubbed his paw over his nose "I smell… metal."

"Metal?" Gloyd blinked as he looked at the slash, a sudden thought crossed his mind as he noticed how thin and perfect it was done"…Should we worry about it?"

"…Dunno." Rufus looked at him, but then he touched the slash "But that's not what's calling my attention. I don't know who or what made this slash, but it wants to be found."

Vanellope looked confused; the black cat pointed to the slash once more with his paw "Didn't you notice?" The two kids looked up.

The slash was shaped as an arrow, pointing to where the windmills Gloyd saw earlier were standing.

Vanellope, finally understanding the now menacing signal, picked Rufus to make him face her "It must be a trap Ruffy! What if whoever made this slash is luring us there!?"

"W-what if THEY have Viper!?" He said panicking and placing his paws on her cheeks. Gloyd looked at them; their tension and fear were starting to worry him.

"G-guys, I think we shouldn't be fighting-" He muttered as he stepped closer to them.

**"YOU STAY OUT OF THIS!"** The two said as they faced the boy with angry eyes, making the prankster feel tiny in front of the arguing duo, before they reassumed their freak out time.

The pumpkin headed hooligan just watched them in silence, trying to order his thoughts- so this might be a trap, someone must be luring them, and it was probably the Silhouette; after all, there were no more monsters in the island…

_Right?_

He thought about it some more, no, Spellina said the Silhouette alone was hunting the racers down. That one thing made him understand that Viper was probably taken by the monster just as Rufus feared. Gloyd looked at the mark on the tree as to confirm his thoughts, but there was something troubling him: The mark was indeed thin; there was no way a set of claws would have done such a perfect cut.

It was probably made with a knife.

So to him it was a vicious cycle- he got the hints that the monsters he encountered a while ago took this Viper guy, but then this odd mark on the tree made him doubt if that creature made it to start with, and then he returned to the main point again just to have it repeat all over his mind.

Gloyd decided to leave it aside as it was making his head spin by looking at Vanellope and Rufus, who were impressibly still in their freak-out moment- should he blame them? _Nah._

Should he do something stupid to call their attention to hopefully end the not-so important discussion so they can keep searching and get out of the forest?

Now _that's_ more like it.

"Hey, bet'cha ya guys can't get me!" He shouted as he ran towards the direction the arrow was pointing at. This made the two racers drop their bickering with a gasp and sprint right behind of Gloyd.

"What are you doing!?" Rufus meowed out loud as he tried to catch up. Vanellope looked at Gloyd in disbelief from behind, just what was he doing!? She glitched to catch him, but he was able to avoid getting caught.

Gloyd, who was a really fast runner out of his kart, dashed between the dead trees that made yet another path; but it was weird, it seemed the dry bushes were cut in a way to pass freely between them- however this wasn't a racing track for what they could tell, the earth was solid, no dirt track to be seen.

Someone must have done a pathway.

They keep going ahead at a fast pace; jumping over rocks and avoiding getting their feet stuck on anything like roots or bushes, the three avatars were about to reach the windmill. To match the island, this windmill was broken, with the spinning panels torn in places and one hanging loosely; it moved slightly with the weak wind, making an uncomfortable creaking sound.

They also saw that ahead right next to the abandoned windmill, was a cliff… and something was glowing beneath it.

Gloyd felt it once more; the light headed state, and the odd power of something telling him to come closer. He ran even faster to see what was waiting for them.

However, as they tried to see what was creating the odd glow, Rufus sniffed the air, and made a disgusted sound that stopped him on his track "Gobs! That stinks!" He covered his nose with his paw, growling lightly. As a cat, he was more sensible to the smells, but the kids weren't; Vanellope noticed Rufus was far from them and turned to Gloyd.

"Hold it Pumpkinhead! Ruff nagged behind!" She called, but Gloyd paid no mind- they were so close! The President didn't share this thought however, as she charged once more and glitched towards him, catching the boy by his jacket's collar "I said hold-! Whoa!"

With the pressure he was using on his legs to run faster and the sudden thug holding him back, Gloyd couldn't help but yelp as he lost his balance, making both trip and roll towards the cliff due to how the landscape was titled like.

"Guys!" Rufus screamed and ran after them.

They were about to reach the peak, that might turn into a dangerous fall, but Gloyd reacted faster and grabbed what seemed to be a tangled, black licorice root from a near tree and pulled it. It was strong enough to stop them from rolling further away, and it was great news because they were mere feet away from falling. They sighed relieved and stood clumsily.

Vanellope groaned as she rubbed her head "Nice going…"

"Excuse me!" Gloyd frowned "You were the one who-!"

_Ssss!_

Both of them widened their eyes and quickly looked down at Gloyd's hand- he didn't grab a root, he grabbed a black licorice Python! They screamed as Gloyd threw the snake away, but it was really mad someone interrupted its nap.

Hissing louder, it sneaked closer to them, opening its mouth to throw a successful bite, but it yelped as it felt a pain soaring through it, coming from its back side.

"MEWROW!" Rufus mewed loudly as he dug his claws further into the Python's body, making it twist with pain. The black Licorice snake moved so much it got closer to the cliff and fell as the cat released it. Looking down, the racers saw the reptile's still body on a rock, it was dead "Viper's gonna hate me..." Muttered the cat.

"Still, thanks man…" Said Gloyd as Vanellope sighed in relief, but the boy blinked as he saw Rufus covering his nose with his paws "Hey, what's wrong? It didn't bite you, did it?"

Rufus shook his head "No, something stinks REALLY bad!" He whined "How come you guys don't feel it!?"

"Maybe if you turn back to normal it wouldn't bother ya, kitty cat." Vanellope rolled her eyes. Rufus just replied with an _'Oh'_ and changed back to his original appearance, sighing relieved as the smell was bothering him no longer.

However, he widened his eyes as he saw what was below the cliff. The other two racers glanced below, and their eyes also widened, mainly Gloyd's.

It was a field of pumpkins. But even though the kids were pretty far up to see any details, Gloyd knew this place wasn't the same one he saw in his vision.

For beginners, the pumpkin weren't even orange, they were green! The light they saw on their way came from the pumpkins, it was an odd green glow.

But that wasn't what shocked them most.

"Guys look!" Rufus pointed below "It's Viper! He's right there!"

Indeed, there was someone laying between the pumpkins right at the center of the field. Vanellope squinted her eyes to try and look better, but all she could see was some kind of a huge snake like shape.

"…He doesn't shape shifts like you do, right?" She looked at Rufus who just shook his head.

"Nah, I'm the only one! Viper can talk to snakes though- wait who cares!" He exclaimed loudly and turned to Gloyd "We have to get down there! He might be hurt!"

The prankster nodded "Look, I think we should try and do it like this." He looked at Vanellope "We go there and bring Viper up here with your glitch while Rufus stays here, if something appears, he'll shout out to warn us." Gloyd looked at Rufus "I mean, the only thing we should worry about is the Silhouette, right?"

Rufus nodded, but he looked rather unsure about it. They didn't give it much attention and Gloyd grabbed Vanellope's hand, and right after she nodded, they started glitching their way down. The boy was starting to get used to the feeling of his body receiving small shock waves once they reached the ground.

Suddenly they were able to understand Rufus' fuss about the smell earlier as they covered their noses and made a disgusted noise.

_"Rotten pumpkins…!"_ She coughed.

Gloyd rubbed his nose "Huh, reminds me when mom's crops don't turn out that well!" He sniffed the air, and luckily he stopped feeling the bothersome smell "Take deep breaths and it'll go away, Princess…"

She did as told, though it took her a longer time to get used. Vanellope wiped a tear away from her eye as it showed the rotten odor was too much for her at first, but it eventually dissolved into nothing "Seriously, how can you come up with these solutions?"

"Experiences, both good and bad ones with my past pranks." He shrugged "Gotta learn from your mistakes."

Deciding to leave the chit-chat aside, the two walked to where Viper was at a fast pace. Gloyd couldn't help but stare at the pumpkins- they were mushy, with an almost melted appearance; the pumpkins that probably once had crafted faces and smiles now had some bizarre designs and sad faces due to some parts falling apart due to the rotting. He guessed the green light was caused because of the odd color the pumpkins gained over the years, but surprisingly the candle that light them from the inside were almost intact, like if someone was more worried about lighting them than replacing them…

Vanellope walked ahead and reached for Viper, she knelled down to examine him. Viper Hissfangz was a boy with an oddly older appearance than theirs; his hair was black with a thin dyed green line that covered one of his eyes while his skin was slightly tanned, he was dressed with a strange green, sleeveless hood that was shaped like a snake's head, and the hood had a 'tail' that ended near his feet, making clear why he looked like a huge snake from far away. He also wore baggy black pants with black shoes.

"Seems like one of those break dancers Swizzle likes to see on TV." Gloyd looked curiously at the boy, but soon he noticed something shocking "Whoa! What happened to him!?"

The raven girl gasped as she saw a large scratch on the boy's torso, which was glitching slightly to fix the damage; it seemed like it was a deep cut, considering how long he was out here in the forest.

Whoever made this had this all planned.

Gloyd looked at Vanellope nervously "Let's get outta here, quickly." She nodded before they got to each side of Viper. The prankster lifted him with Vanellope's help and left him resting on his back, releasing a groan.

"At least he's conscious…" She muttered and grabbed Gloyd's hand "C'mon, hopefully my glitching won't make things worse-"

"GUYS LOOK OUT!" They looked up to see Rufus shouting after them hysterically. Out of instinct, Vanellope looked back quickly, yelped, and glitched a few meters to the right. The sudden glitching caught Gloyd off guard which made his head spin a bit, but as he was about to ask her what was going on…

_SLASH! _SPLAT!

He widened his eyes and looked up. And they suddenly understood who was the responsible of the slashes.

A Reaper was there, carrying a huge, deadly scythe that was buried between the rotten pumpkins near from where they were standing mere seconds ago.

The creature in front of them was just like the horror books portrayed the Death; with a height that can be compared to the Silhouette's, he was wearing a long, black cape torn in places around the sleeves and the base, however, they noticed this Reaper had no bones like in the illustrations. Or a body in general. They glanced at where the creature was holding the scythe, just to see the black handle floating mere centimeters away from the sleeves as if invisible hands were holding it.

Both kids couldn't see anything else as Rufus shouted once more "RUN!"

The frightening creature turned his head at the trembling racers, they saw nothing but a black hole. He lifted his scythe from the rotten pumpkin in less than a heartbeat and charged at them once more. Gloyd pushed Vanellope away and he jumped back, avoiding the attack by little.

"Vanellope! Quick!" He called after her. The President got to his side and they started to glitch their way up the cliff.

But the reaper had another plans.

He looked up in time to see Vanellope glitching one last time to reach the peak, and threw the scythe straight at her. A clean cut was made on her arm, making her yelp in pain and accidentally dropping Gloyd before reaching Rufus' side "GLOYD!"

_"AHHHH!"_ He screamed as he fell, he closed his eyes expecting the worse, but luckily he fell over a huge pumpkin that was firm enough to act like a pillow, sending him flying over the Reaper, who just followed the boy with his head silently.

Rufus got next to Vanellope and stared worriedly at both her arm and Viper, the slashes were glitching and releasing bits of colors "This looks bad, you guys need to get those injuries healed!"

"We can't!" She widened her eyes in panic "G- I released Gloyd! He's down there!"

"WHAT!?" The cat boy stared at her in shock "Go get him! Do something!"

Vanellope looked down and tried to glitch, but she could feel nothing but a huge pain soaring through the upper part of her body "Agh!" She grabbed her arm, the glitching just made the injure worse by expanding it.

Gloyd was on his own now.

Rufus picked up Viper "Vanellope, we need to leave and get you both treated!" She gasped and shook her head "I-I know it's the worst idea I have proposed so far but-!"

"It IS the worst idea!" She shouted "How do you expect me to leave like nothing!?"

"JUST GO, VANELLOPE!"

Both kids turned their heads quickly and looked down as they heard the boy's shout.

Gloyd jumped to avoid another hit as he looked up "I'll be fine! You leave and come to pick me up soon!"

The President just frowned "Are you crazy!?"

"I am!" He shouted as he faced the silent creature "Just leave while you can! Don't wait until the other monster shows up!"

Widening his eyes at the last sentence, the cat boy grabbed her hand. And the two of them were gone from the place before she could do anything about it.

The Reaper looked at Gloyd once more, and stood up straight. This composure made the prankster uncomfortable as he backed a few steps trying not to trip with the pumpkins. The boy turned his head all ways to try and find a way out.

But the field was in a hole surrounded by the cliffs. There was no way out for him this time.

Looking at the monster again, he gulped "L-let's hope they get back here fast…" The Death raised his weapon once more.

* * *

King Candy sat alone on his throne, a worried frown was clear for anyone to see. He was swinging one of his legs softly as he thought things over and over.

Giving a defeating sigh he decided to stand up and take care of some paperwork left to do; now that Vanellope was gone, a pile of her duties was added to his, not that he really minded. But as he was about to get the folder and start working, there was a knock "Yeth?"

"Your majesty" The Oreo guard answered from behind the doors "You have a visit from the Orangeboars, sir"

King Candy smiled lightly "Ah! No problem, let them in!" The doors opened and the two adults entered, Lady Pumpkin right next to Lord Gourd.

Once in front of the King, they bowed "Thanks for letting us in…" She said.

"A good day to thee, King Candy" Said Lord Gourd as he placed his hat over his chest.

"It'th nice to thee you two!" The King left the folder over a table, and turned to the other adults "It'th not really common to thee you coming into my cathtle though, ith there thomething you need my help with?"

Lady Pumpkin quickly nodded "Oh, yes we do! It's about that island! We noticed a little trouble!"

Blinking at this, the King straightened up "A little trouble you thay? Which kind of trouble?"

"The 'I-know-that-island-but-forgot-why trouble'" She said very quickly, showing she was feeling nervous. Lord Gourd grabbed her hand to calm her down with a hum.

The pumpkin man looked at King Candy "We do not know this struggling feeling, good lord" He sighed "As our child left, our worries extended"

King Candy looked down in thought, rubbing his chin with his hand "Tho, I wathn't the only one..." He looked at the worried parents with a quick glance before walking to the board where the map was pinned. The Orangeboars walked next to him and they all stared at the map in silence.

The kids have been gone for a while now.

* * *

"Will you just hold still!?" Hissed Spellina "I'm just about to drop EVERYTHING and leave you with that fudging wound!"

Vanellope just glared "Then do it quickly! Gloyd's in danger right now!" She squeamed a bit as the slash was healing, very slowly, making her feel an uncomfortable static shock.

The witch themed racer just huffed as she soaked the cotton candy fluff she was using with a herbal solution "The thing will take a damn while anyway! And if you keep moving I can assure you that it'll take longer to heal!"

The other four avatars were around Rufus as he explained what happened as they found Viper, every once in a while glancing back to see both Spellina rambling with Vanellope, and Viper resting on the sofa with his wound treated, but he was still unconscious.

"Are you kidding me!?" Rancis made the cat boy to turn his head towards the blond racer "The 'Death' appeared and tried to attack you guys!?"

Minty had worry written all over her features "But I thought that the Silhouette was the only monster in this place! When did that other creature appeared?"

"I-I told you all! I don't know!" The ears of his cat hood lowered back "We just saw Viper fainted at the middle of the field and-!" Swizzle stepped in front, cutting the boy's sentence.

"Who cares! You left Gloyd behind!" He snapped "He must be now getting slaughtered or something!"

Vanellope glared at him darkly "NEVER SAY THAT AGAIN MALARKEY!" Spellina just rolled her eyes as she finished her work on the President's arm "Gloyd told us to leave! But I didn't want to run away even if the wound couldn't let me glitch!"

"It was a matter of seconds before the Silhouette showed up too!" Rufus tried to reason with the darevil "We didn't have any choice but to get here safely to get both Viper and Vanellope treated!"

Swizzle let the words sink in slowly, but he was still mad "But now what!? He's still with that monster! What's the plan!?"

"My gob, shut up..." Muttered Spellina as she sat next to Viper. The pets were gathered right next to a heartbroken-looking Spook, who was cuddled against his beloved master's pumpkin hat that he left before heading out. Spellina just sighed as she saw the poor animals trying to cheer their friend up with no result.

Vanellope looked at the pets, and then at her arm still healing "I'll go and rescue him once this damn thing heals, but there's something that needs to be done." She looked at her racers "You guys need to return to Sugar Rush, and tell my father about what's happening in this place."

Taffyta widened her eyes "We? What about you?"

"They need our help..." She glanced at the two Trickery Treat racers as they looked worriedly at Viper "We can't all leave at once, me and Gloyd are probably the only ones that can stay, but you guys on the other side..."

Rancis crossed his arms as if he was thinking something, then looked up "Do you think we should bring the other avatars?"

"Like a backup?" Swizzle looked at the Reese cup racer who nodded.

Minty looked at Vanellope "The Sweet Tooth racers might lend us a hand!"

"Good idea Mintz." Vanellope nodded "Bring Manny or Fang over, just remember we still need racers back at Sugar Rush so the gamers won't suspect. I don't think it would be a smart idea to bring people from other games, the things out there would give them a Game Over..." She looked down in thought as she noticed the slim chances they had in order to defend themselves, however she saw another important point "But to take you all to the boat and start this, we need Gloyd to take you there safely..."

An uncomfortable silence filled the room, for a short while anyways.

"...Well, what are you waiting for?" Everyone turned to see Spellina, who had one eyebrow lifted "Wanna save your prince?"

"What kind of question is that!?" Vanellope glared at her, just to then blink confused as Spellina moved her head to signal her something. She looked down at her arm.

It was completely healed.

The witch themed racer pointed to the exit "I would sprint outta here if I were you." Vanellope turned at her once more, smirked, and nodded.

"Thanks, Witchy." Despite the glare she received from the female racer, the President glitched her way out of the house. As she stood alone in the forest, a look of determination was formed on her features.

She glitched her way to where Gloyd was.

And no matter the situation, she'll make sure they all returned together.

* * *

Meanwhile at the pumpkin field, the sound of the slashing was echoing through the nearest areas around the cliff.

"Agh!" Gloyd's scream joined the echoing as he kept trying to avoid getting slaughtered by the Reaper, who was starting to get frustrated by his continuous missing streak. He charged at Gloyd, finally being able to smack him away with his arm. The boy's back collided with a rock, making him groan in pain for a short-lived second before gasping as he saw the monster throwing over himself again.

Reacting fast, he grabbed a pumpkin and threw it straight at the Reaper's hood, making him to stop the attack and struggling to get the rotten treat out of his not-existing face as Gloyd moved out of the way, running towards a rocky zone in where he hoped he could hold himself a little longer.

But he was almost out of energy to keep sprinting away of the Death's grasp; what was he supposed to do now? And where the hell was Vanellope? Unknowingly for him, the girl was being as fast as she could to reach out from him.

No matter where he saw it, he was near for screwing up things, and the only way he could possibly avoid this was by running away with what little amount of energy he had left. Gloyd was about to reach the place when he heard something coming straight at him. Out of instinct he threw himself at the ground as fast as possible, avoiding just by little the scythe that came spinning right behind of him! He looked back in panic as he Reaper had successfully removed the distracting pumpkin from his face and was slowly coming after Gloyd.

The prankster looked ahead to notice the scythe was stuck by the rocks, opportunity he took to run and hide behind the huge boulders. He gasped as he tried to catch his breath back, but soon covered his mouth as he heard the deadly weapon being removed.

And the rustling of dead grass and dry leaves coming straight at him at a low pace.

Gloyd tried to remain quiet, he was safely behind a huge purple rock candy and there were many other rocks, but he was starting to get terrified by the rustling sound getting closer and closer. From the corner of his eye he saw the monster circling the rocks, searching for his prey. The prankster pressed his back against the rock and slid carefully, trying to avoid getting on the Reaper's line of vision.

He then noticed the place began to lit faintly, but not because of the pumpkin's candles; this light came from... above.

Gloyd looked up.

The clouds, for the very first time in years for the inhabitants of the island, were parting aside, letting the moonlight peek through them. It was the most bright light Gloyd had ever seen, brighter then Sugar Rush's moon.

As he gazed at the moon showing up slowly, he began to hear something, giggles. The same young laughs he heard before- but why now?

Why _here?_

Vanellope finally arrived to the cliff and looked down trying to find her boyfriend, but as much as she looked he was no where to be seen, and it panicked her.

"Gloyd!" She shouted, the echo reaching his ears.

But someone's else too.

Gloyd fixated his sight at the cliff and saw his salvation right there, but a much bigger danger too.

The Silhouette was standing there, Vanellope had attracted it!

Not even thinking he shouted "GET AWAY! HE SILHOUETTE IS BEHIND OF YOU!" Vanellope heard him and gasped as she turned around and saw the monster; the President didn't lose her time as she glitched away. However, it did not move to catch her. It was looking below the cliff. It was looking at Gloyd.

The prankster, not being able to notice this, blinked at the odd behavior the monster was holding as Vanellope was standing there as if frozen. Why did it stood there? Wasn't it supposed to attack anyone on sight? But then a realization hit him hard.

He had shouted.

And just after he thought that, the sound of a slash echoed in his ears as a clean cut was made on the rock he was hiding at, the upper half of it was sent flying to the side, exposing Gloyd literally to the Death.

"FUDGE...!" He tried to run, but it was too late when he reacted. The Reaper grabbed Gloyd's leg and threw against a big pile of rotten pumpkins, the strength of the collision nearly made him pass out, leaving his head spinning and way too slow to register the danger he was now in.

Vanellope suddenly snapped out of her shocked state and shouted "Gloyd! Hold on!" She started to glitch her way towards the boy as fast as she could.

But the Reaper was already standing in front of the weak boy, slowly raising his weapon to make the final attack. Gloyd could do nothing instead of following the scythe with his sight in his state, the echoing shouts of the raven girl falling on deaf ears.

The scythe was right centered at the now exposed full moon as it was lifted above the Death's frame.

Gloyd's eyes then widened slightly. He saw the vision.

The field of beautiful pumpkins, the giggles, and then he felt the warm feeling of a friendship being born.

A friendship between him, and someone with_ white eyes..._

"Move!" Shouted Vanellope.

_That glowed with a soft..._

The Reaper threw his scythe straight at Gloyd's head as a sudden burst of energy reacted the boy's vocals, taking him completely out of his dizziness.

**"DIM LIGHT!"**

_SLASH!_

A desperate scream came from the raven girl, who just feet away from where the Death was standing "GLOYD!" Silence then returned right after that... But, she noticed something in her shock.

The Reaper was shaking madly.

_'Ch...'_ He muttered, the voice sounding broken _'Child...?'_

* * *

**A/N: So, what do you guys think? Does this new character rings something for you?**

**Thanks for reading! Will try to keep up the next update!**

**~DreamerAwaken**


	5. Shattered Mirrors, united Hearts

** A/N: What's this? A very late update? Hooray!**

**Seriously now, though, I apologize for making you guys wait so long for this update. As expected, school's been on me as well as a few other things pilling on my shoulders, but things have been getting better, and with summer vacations, I will be able to update this story faster! (Hopefully... never trust my words).**

**Hope you enjoy this installment! Also, check on my DeviantArt page to see the designs of my Trickery Treat racers! My username is DreamerAwaken.**

* * *

He didn't dare to open his eyes.

He just didn't, not after hearing the slash of the scythe coming right at him, not after hearing Vanellope's desperate screams, and not even after everything was drowned in an eerie silence.

But there was something that made Gloyd flinch.

_'Ch...Child...?'_

Who was speaking? And why did they sound so...afraid?

Gloyd then noticed something. If he was conscious, then why did he not feel any pain?

He snapped his eyes open, blinking as the now visible moonlight pierced through his eyes.

As his eyes got used to the bright light, the boy turned his head quickly to his right; the scythe was deep buried right next to him alright... but it was buried into the rotten pumpkin he had his back rested on; just millimeters away from his neck, making him gulp nervously before glancing up.

What he saw left him speechless.

There were now two weak, white glowing orbs in the Reapers' cloak were the face was presumed to be; with each passing second, the glow intensified slightly, and Gloyd couldn't help but stare at them.

It's like time stopped right there, in a way, as the two neither moved or said anything and instead just looked at each other in a confusing, deep wonder.

That's it, until Vanellope interrupted this mysterious bond by glitching in front of the prankster "Gloyd! Let's get outta here!" As glad as she was for seeing him conscious, the scythe alone scared the bits out of her code. She hurriedly grabbed his sleeve and pulled him up before running away. The Death lifted his sight to see Gloyd, and extended his arm quickly, yet shakily.

The message was clear for the boy: 'Don't go'

"W-wait, Van!" He tugged back as he stopped running, making his feet drag over the hard ground below them to make her stop, which worked. The two racers just stood there, looking at each other for a few seconds, before Gloyd turned back to the Reaper. The creature stared back, lowering his arm slightly as the boy was released from the girl's grasp.

Gloyd looked up at the moon, shining as bright as their sun back home, before looking back at the Reaper; his voice was an almost inaudible whisper, quieter than the cold wind moving his bangs softly.

"...What did you say?"

Vanellope looked at him, clearly lost in this moment as she also looked at the Reaper.

The creature looked at them in complete silence, and slowly, very slowly, released his grasp on the scythe to turn fully towards them; his once intimidating stance was now reduced to a more… weak, almost scared one.

And then, a soft whisper reached their ears _'Child... my... name...'_

"His name...?" She turned to Gloyd, hoping to see if he knew anything about it "Is there something wrong with it? What is that thing talking about?" The prankster looked down in thought, glancing at her every now in a while, trying to understand this as well.

He then remembered: The vision, the laughs, the white eyes.

The Reaper had white eyes that could be mistaken by the moon.

_"Dim Light..."_ He whispered and looked back up, a slight shocked expression on his eyes "Y-your name is... Dim Light, isn't it?"

Silence came right after that, with the Reaper standing there quietly.

_'...'_ The two orbs then began to light strongly, surrounding the creature with a white glow and blinding the racers for a few seconds as they covered their eyes with their sleeves.

Suddenly, both Vanellope and Gloyd could feel the ground shaking slightly, and the putrefied smell of rotten pumpkins was gone.

Though it was hard for them to see, the field covered with rotten pumpkins was gone, replaced by a beautiful harvest area. All that was green and putrid was now autumn colored and sweet.

The pumpkins were now a fresh, bright and healthy orange and shinning with the sugar dust covering them and the golden lights from the Jack-o-Lanterns; the place was back to life, and the broken windmill was repaired. The wind carried the loose sugar of the treats with it, making a small, shiny trail with it in the air above them.

These golden swirls surrounded the strong light, and then it vanished.

"It-it is _you...!_" A sudden young voice exclaimed.

They snapped their eyes open and looked up quickly, just to see the Reaper wrapping his arms around Gloyd tightly while sobbing.

This shocked them, but soon Vanellope noticed something very odd. The Death was... smaller.

In fact, he now was taller than them by mere inches, and the scythe was gone too, being replaced with a small pendant of the same shape hanging from a silver necklace around his neck. The teared cloak from before was now a new cloak with odd white patterns at the base, hood and sleeves, small white belts were decorating the arms, and she saw something glowing from inside the hood.

Eyes, the creature now had eyes that seemed as if they were shut tightly as he hugged Gloyd, who couldn't think straight as he hugged back the stranger- he looked away as he thought that last part, remembering something.

"I'm so sorry! I'm so sorry, child…!" Dim Light kept sobbing on his shoulder, softer than before as he kept saying those words over and over.

Dim Light… wasn't a stranger. They had seen each other somehow before, and they _knew_ each other.

But why couldn't he remember clearly? Why did he attacked them and was now apologizing?

And also, why didn't the Silhouette attack Vanellope, but instead just looked at _him_ a while ago?

It didn't make any sense!

Dim Light's sobbing brought him back to reality, and Gloyd looked up at him with confused eyes as the other cleaned his glowing eyes with his sleeve, daring to talk "I... look, I don't know how to say this but..."

"You don't remember me... do you, child?"

Gloyd widened his eyes at the echoing sound of the other's voice cutting him; Dim Light continued "I do not feel offended by this, in fact... I was expecting you to forget everything about this place, child..." He sighed lightly as he released the boy.

The Reaper looked at Vanellope, bowing slightly "My... deepest apologizes for attacking both an old friend, and the ruler of the main kingdom..."

It was Vanellope's turn to widen her eyes "Wait, time out... you know us?"

"I know everything..." He stood straight, looking sad "Or... I did, at least..." Dim Light turned to Gloyd, a more worried expression in his white eyes "We are in great danger out here, we need to leave… and talk."

* * *

_"...Ugh..."_

The racers turned their heads from the conversation they were having towards Viper, who to their surprise was now sitting on the couch, rubbing his head. He hissed in slight pain before turning his head and noticing the avatars, blinking in confusion "Wha'…?"

Rufus grinned brightly however "Viper! You're ok!" He quickly reached his side and stood next to the sofa before turning into a cat, rubbing his head against Viper's arm while purring contently; Spellina soon followed after him with the rest of the racers.

"Tsk, of course he's fine. What? You doubted the power of my potions?" She rolled her eyes but still stood on the other side of the cushion, a slight worried face as she looked at the snake boy who was petting Rufus "Viper, how are you feeling?"

"Like a... sssour patch..." He said with a sigh "But I guessss I'll manage... what happened to me?" Viper turned to the Sugar Rush racers "And who are they?"

They looked at each other and Minty decided to do the talking "We are racers from the Sugar Rush kingdom, we came here after we unlocked this land." She looked at the rest of the crew "We've been hiding here since we arrived..." Most of them lowered their gazes.

The snake boy sighed again, looking a bit pissed off "Jussst great..." He mumbled "I don't know how you guysss will make it outta thisss place..."

"Unlike us, they can." Spellina interrupted him as she crossed her arms, making him widen his eyes slightly as he turned to see the witch racer "There are two more racers, one of them can use this glitching ability, and the other...; somehow, the Silhouette is scared of him."

"What!?" Viper widened his eyes more.

"Just like you heard!" Rufus happily replied "Me and those guys found you laying in the middle of a rotten pumpkin field! The smell was awful!" The cat then lowered his ears, looking worried "Just... what happened to you, Viper?"

He tried to recall, remembering right away, and opened his mouth to talk. He was suddenly shushed by Spellina however as she heard someone knocking.

Everyone looked up nervously and held their breath, until the voice of Vanellope was heard "We're back..." The racers looked at each other in relief as it sounded like Vanellope was alright, and hearing another pair of footsteps made them realize Gloyd was back too, this made Spook very happy too.

The witch racer sighed and went to the corridor to greet them "Well, glad to see you two guys back safe- wait, who is THAT?"

The last part made them look up in surprise, and they were even more surprised as they saw their friends enter the room with a new guy, dressed as a Reaper with no visible face, but glowing white eyes.

Ignoring the new arrival for a second, the racers immediately went to greet their friends "Dude!" Swizzle went and stood next to Gloyd, putting his hand on the brunet's shoulder with their pets on his hat "Gloyd, ya alright man? I was worried sick!" The little bat chirped loudly and landed on Gloyd's chest, nuzzling his head against him happily.

"Yeah man…" Gloyd however looked slightly pale as he hugged Spook closer and burying his nose in the bat's grey soft fur, his state didn't go unnoticed by the daredevil "It's just that… well-"

"You don't look good man." Swizzle seemed a bit concerned, but a loud hiss sound broke their chat.

**"YOU!"**

"Wh-_AHHH!"_ Dim Light's sudden shout alarmed everyone, making them gasp at the sight- Viper was pinning Dim Light on the floor!

The snake boy just hissed with menacing anger as he grabbed the edges of the Reaper's hood tightly, making him face him "What did you do to Maria!?"

"Dim Light!" Gloyd and Vanellope stood next to Viper and successfully pushed him off the Reaper kid, who hid and shivered madly behind of Gloyd as the sight of the enraged Trickery Treat racer left him almost petrified "Hey! Drop it, snake boy!" He glared as he extended his arms with Spook perched on his shoulder, as to protect Dim Light.

"DROP IT!?" Viper looked like if he was about to murder Dim Light as he stomped on the ground hard_"HE_ took Maria! _HE_ attacked me back at that FORESSST! You don't have to PITY him!" He hissed angrily, but Vanellope stood firmly in front of him, preparing to glitch him away to avoid problems in case he crossed the line.

The Reaper boy, upon hearing this, made a sad expression and moved slightly from behind of Gloyd, yet not completely as he was still afraid "I… I admit! I did attack you! But, young Maria was never at the forest…!"

"LIAR! I SSSAW HER!" The snake boy tried to jump on him again, but Swizzle grabbed the long hood and pulled him back alongside the President "Let me GO!" The volume of his voice was near from before an annoying whistle, in fact, Rufus and the sweet pets had to cover their ears.

The prankster frowned even more as he stood protectively in front of the Reaper kid "Stay away from Dim Light! He didn't do anything in purpose!"

**"FOR CRYING OUT LOUD SHUT UP!"**

Everyone flinched, and slowly turned their heads to Spellina as all the commotion stopped, whose face was red and her features twisted in an enraged expression, worse than the one Viper was holding a while back. In fact, both Viper and Dim Light had panicked faces as they knew how she was when mad; Viper because he practically lived with her, and Dim Light… just did.

Rufus, on the other hand, just sighed, though he smiled a little "…Which shelf?" He asked and looked at her, earning a confused look from the racers.

"Third shelf on the left." She replied, not taking her menacing gaze off the avatars as Rufus turned back into a kid and looked for the mentioned spot. The cat boy roamed the books for a short while, and took the same book from earlier. He bounced next to the girl and offered it to her with a big grin.

Spellina took the book, pulled his hood down, and pet his head a little before she walked towards Dim Light "You."

_"…"_ The Reaper signaled himself a bit nervously with the tip of his sleeve.

"Yes. You." Spellina rolled her eyes "Viper won't set a finger on you-"

"Why wouldn't I!?" He hissed angrily, but then shut immediately when Spellina glared at him with an even darker expression, if that was even possible.

The witch racer grunted "Because I say so, now back off!"

The Sugar Rush racers just saw this envelop with blank faces, and as Viper moved a few steps back the Reaper kid eased up. Spellina walked and stood right in front of him "I have a few questions, starting with your odd name."

"It is not odd." Dim Light frowned slightly, feeling a bit insulted, but he wasn't pushing his luck in front of her "It is the name my dear friend gave me years ago..." He looked at Gloyd with soft eyes "But I'm afraid he does not remember that…"

"Huh?" Rufus pulled his hood up while looking shocked "But… wait! Doesn't that means that…!?"

"That I used to live here?" Everyone turned to Gloyd, whose face was even paler then before "…Maybe, ugh…" Spook looked up at him alarmed and chirped as he flapped his wings and grabbed the collar of Gloyd's blazer, tugging him to sit down on the sofa "S-Spook, I'm fine!"

Swizzle shook his head at him "You look like you'll pass out or something man, better sit down." The darevil sat next to his friend with Tye-Dye on his shoulder, looking at his best friend worriedly "What's this about you living here? It can't be right! You lived in Sugar Rush ever since the game was plugged in!"

The rest of the crew either sat or stood near Gloyd, and the prankster looked at Dim Light to get any answers, but he just looked down almost in shame "I…"

"Is this yours?" Spellina interrupted the moment and gave him the book she was carrying.

The Reaper boy gasped "My Journal!" He picked it and checked the pages by flipping the pages quickly "How did you find it?"

The witch racer crossed her arms "Nothing special, but at least I got the answer I needed: You are 'He who goes by the name of the moon'. You know everything about the war and what happened that day because you wrote it down; we need your help."

Everyone in the room widened their eyes as they heard that, in other words, Dim Light probably knew about what was really wrong with this place and the Silhouette. They watched expectantly, but it seemed luck wasn't on their side.

"…I can't." Said the Reaper kid lowly.

"What!?" The racers had a mix of shock and panic on their faces at the answer.

"I-I can't!" The Reaper kid looked up, looking even more ashamed "I mean, I want to! But I don't remember at all!" He looked at the book "I… do recall this book, but not the memories I once had… I lost them all…"

Rufus whined loudly "What do you mean you lost them!? You're a Reaper! Reapers know _everything!_"

"Well… maybe… not this Reaper…?" He said nervously as Spellina was glaring at him once more.

Gloyd sighed and rubbed his temples, looking more confused than stressed at this dense moment "But… you remembered me back there!" He looked up with Spook sitting on his lap, the little bat was clearly lost in the conversation "How can you say you forgot everything if you recognized me?"

"Because you did as well..." Dim Light set the book down, earning many confused stares "That's why I changed back; you… you made me remember who I was. During all this time, I just thought I was the spirit that killed everyone out of cold blood, but I wasn't." Dim Light then looked at his sleeve, and retreated something, a skeleton mask of a kind. He put the mask on, his eyes shining from behind.

"In the war… I lost my memories, they were wiped off somehow." He continued "With that, I lost my identity, my reasoning, and my true self… I lost everything along the ones who fought to bring peace back to our land."

Spellina looked at him in disbelief "Then… you can't help us, right? If you don't know anything about what might be that thing out there… then we are running out of clues."

"Wait, Maria!" Viper glared at Dim Light "Where isss-she!?"

Vanellope looked at Rufus as Dim Light once more backed away from the snake themed racer in fear, having Spellina pulling him back by the hood "Who is Maria?"

"Viper's girlfriend…" The cat boy looked sad "She's a 'bad luck' racer, and with that, you can tell already that we are good friends. Not like me and Spelly though." He grinned at the witch, who just rolled her eyes as she held Viper down, who wasn't even trying to move from under her hold "But… yeah. Maria Mirrorshard is a very nice girl, and was the first one to disappear."

"And she's… safe, I presume." Dim Light called everyone's attention, mainly Viper's "I… do remember a few things, not enough to answer Spellina's question but… I do know where she is at."

Viper stood near him "Where!? I need to get her back!" The Reaper looked down, then at the racers.

"It is… not that simple…" He started, rubbing his arm "I recall… agreeing to something with the Silhouette."

"Agreeing?" Viper repeated and a few other racers frowned.

Dim Light shook his head softly while sighing "It was all a setup, an illusion I created to lure you over... Maria was never at the forest, instead she have been sealed somewhere else during all these years. I just attacked you because it wanted to attract the child..."

Gloyd looked confused "...Me?" The avatars looked at him in absolute silence, the cracking of the fire being the only noise that actually filled the room "But, what does it want from me?" Vanellope looked worried and sat next to him, putting her hand on his shoulder. It wasn't much, but enough for the boy to sigh and try to calm down.

The Reaper kid shook his head again, even slower "I don't know that either... oh, why can't I remember!" He looked a bit angered "It wants you! It's looking for you, but I do not know the reason!"

Minty stepped forwards "I think I know why, the Silhouette knows it can't come near us with you around." This fact shocked the pumpkin headed racer, surprised to have just noticed this.

If that thing wanted to get rid of them, it needed to reach their strongest point first probably.

"That thing wants to get rid of you so it can reach us." Spellina frowned "And with Dim Light back to...normal, I guess, it's alone now; without a sidekick, the Silhouette will probably become more violent."

"That's probably correct, knowing it." Dim Light then looked at Viper "I feel your ache to know where your beloved awaits... and that's the hardest thing to explain; she's...sealed, safe, but unable to leave..."

Viper hissed "And!?"

"...Maria is trapped in the theater" He finished while looking away, at first they didn't get it, but soon enough Vanellope and the rest of the crew noticed this was awful news; Viper punched the wall furiously as Spellina covered her face with one hand in anger while Rufus, out of fear, turned into a cat and ran under the sofa.

Taffyta looked at each reaction before daring to ask "What's up with that place?"

Seeing no one answering the main question, Dim Light turned to see them "It is... presumed that the Silhouette roams that place, for not saying that it might reside there."

"...It's a suicidal mission." Said Spellina, making their eyes widen.

Time to start worrying, for real.

* * *

"King Candy!" The King bolted up in surprise as many of the sugar parents showed up and walked into the throne leaded by Lady Berry, who held the most unfriendly face.

The King tried to stay calm and hopped down of his throne however, walking towards them casually, yet showing his worry over the unexpected visit "Lady Berry and the retht of the parentth! What ith the matter?"

"Our kids!" Reese Jr. was a nervous wreck "I'm w-worried about my son! Shouldn't they have returned by now...?"

"They should have!" Marley crossed her arms, T.R. looked as bothered as they have neither heard news of their son.

"Now!" King Candy tried to reason with them, thinking his next words carefully "The children have been indeed gone for too long! Thomething mutht have made them thtay a while longer, but I doubt thith we're talking about ith a theriouth matter!"

The group still looked worried, not truly believed the words while Lady Berry still looked mad "I admit Taffyta must be racing with those guys at the island to claim the main spot." Lady Pumpkin, who was with her husband, rolled her eyes at that "But she wouldn't take that long to return, it's been days King Candy!"

"Lady Berry, these are our kids we're talking about here..." Mentha looked as in deep thought "There might be a chance they're just playing with the new avatars and they don't want to return just yet..."

"Thrutht my wordth." King Candy stood straight and then whistled, soon enough Sour Bill showed up carrying a paper and a long white feather "I'll thend a card to the island with the help of the boat and expect the children to anthwer it ath none of uth can't really go and check up on them, it may theem rude to the islanderth over there if we just went by and picked our children in cathe they were jutht fooling around!"

Lord Gourd looked unsatisfied with this method still "And if they do not answer, lord of ours?" King Candy sighed, truly, he was worried about Vanellope too, she was mischievious and all, but she wouldn't just disappear from playing so much in a new land. The parents as well as the remaining racers were all worried, and he just had nothing to do to calm them down.

"...They will have to." Kind Candy sighed "I'm afraid that all left now, ith to wait." He turned to Sour Bill, who was just done writing the letter. The King nodded his head softly and soon the sour candy ball left to take the card to the boat that connected the islands.

The parents wanted to believe there was something else they could do, a few in fact offering to go to the island, but this was denied by the King "If the thituation were to be that bad, I can't jutht rithk more of my people going to check. Thith will be a tathk for the guardth... now plethse, leave. There'th a lot for me to think right now about thith ithsue of that island..."

Most adults just looked down and left without saying anything, the others held a deep frown for a few seconds before doing the same, except the Orangeboars.

Once the three were alone, Lady Pumpkin turned her gaze at Kind Candy "Have you found anything...?"

"I'm afraid I haven't." Kind Candy sighed as he tugged his bow tie slightly "The data ith locked, and I need to know how to unlock it... but thith tathk ith harder than I thought."

"Nevertheless, our lord." Lord Gourd frowned lightly "For the children for being gone, and the information unable to show..."

"It means they might be in problems." Finished Lady Pumpkin, making them all drop their gaze to the carpet floor.

Unknowingly for them, there was a can glued to the window they were standing near from. A long string was attached to it and in the other end, a pair of twins looked at each other in surprise.

"Did you hear that?" Petty set the can down as he looked at his twin.

Patrick nodded "You bet I did! I was so into the races I didn't realize…"

"…That Vanellope and the others haven't returned from that place." The other finished "And not only that, King Candy is hiding something too it seems."

"More like, King Candy AND Gloyd's parents. I wonder what it is…" The twins looked down and then at each other again, suddenly a mischievous glint was evident in their eyes.

"I think we should…"

"Spoil this to the others!"

* * *

"I can't believe I have to go with you two." Viper hissed lowly as they made their way through town. From the corner of their eyes, they saw the candy people hiding into their houses, peeking through their curtains with scared eyes as they passed by. The prankster felt sorry for them, as they were way more vulnerable than any of the racers; at first he thought they were paranoid with everything happening involving the Silhouette, but that's not all the reason of why they were so terrified of their group.

They were afraid of Dim Light, seeing most of them were attacked by him in his last form. He won't say anything about that right now of course, but the Reaper felt very guilty for his past actions, there was no need to rub more salt into the wound.

Dim Light was in fact, the one guiding them as he floated inches above of the ground, not daring to look at those who he harmed "What I do not believe, Viper, is the fact you're the one following us." He glanced back slightly "Are you sure your injuries are not… going to complicate you? I know what my scythe can do…"

Viper grunted "Isss fine, I jussst want to find her and get her ACTUALLY sssafe!" He crossed his arms, his hissing getting a bit high pitched, almost sounding like a whistle, before mimicking Dim Light's voice with a girlish tone.

"She's safe!" Viper glared just after he said that "Yeah right! Ssshe isss at that place trapped with that monssster and you call that SSSAFE!?"

"Shut it!" Gloyd glared from behind of Viper, he could understand his desperation still, as if something happened to Vanellope, he wouldn't be calm either, but he knew this wasn't the right moment either "Look, or we go there quietly and get her out, or you bring that thing to us with your shouting!"

"You're ssshoutin'!" He shot back.

"If this is any help, you two are." Dim Light sighed as he stopped, making the two boy to stop behind of him too "Now will you cut it? Maria is sealed in a mirror, that thing can't reach her, so in other words, she's is safe, in an unsafe place." The Reaper turned around and looked at the snake themed racer, his stare looked a bit worried "But that doesn't mean that getting her out will be an easy task, the only way to get her out… is by breaking the mirror."

Viper groaned lightly "Pleassse don't tell me…"

Dim Light sighed again, more heavily "Honestly Viper, why do you think she's still in there?"

_"Fudge…"_

Gloyd looked at the two "I'm pretty lost here." He said in a tone of 'don't forget I'm here too'.

The snake themed boy sighed this time as he looked at Gloyd. "Err, do you know about broken mirrorsss and ssstuff? About the ssseven yearsss of bad luck and all?"

"Yes?" Gloyd started to walk and they started to head to the theater as planned "What's with that?"

"Maria isss a bad luck racer basssed on that, and honessstly, ssshe'sss terrified of it." Viper looked a bit sympathetic, just a bit "Lassst thing ssshe wantsss, isss to hurt usss, but I don't believe in bad luck, lessss hersss."

The prankster seemed to understand, but not completely "She's scared of broken mirrors because of the meaning? Then… she can't free herself because of that?"

Dim Light hummed, as if sounding impressed, before frowning in thought "Quite a dirty player it is, for what I can make out of what you just said…"

"What do you mean?" The two boys looked straight at the back of the Reaper, who didn't turn back.

"The more I think about it now, the more I realize something: The Silhouette knew my biggest fear… to hurt people without reason" He sounded serious as he spoke "And Maria is afraid of broken mirrors, doesn't that sounds… odd to you two?"

Gloyd widened his eyes "Wait… you mean, that thing can know our fears and takes advance of that!? It can't be!"

The Reaper hummed again in thought, before shrugging in a way that broke his serious attitude as he replied with a slight jolly voice "Oh, beats me, little child. I'm just a spirit in a cape! It was a mere guess, do not worry so much."

"…Damn it Dim Light!" He sighed annoyed "Don't tell that kind of stuff right now!"

Viper hissed "But there'sss-still the chance that thing will get itsss handsss on our throatsss. We need to be very wary." He then stopped.

"…We are here, that was a much faster walk." Gloyd said bluntly.

In front of them, another clearly abandoned building was standing. The theater of Trickery Treat was as big as any famous theater would be, but just like the island itself, dead in appearance. Many of the hundred of windows were broken as well as the light bulbs and projectors that used to light the place, the red rug from the entrance was dirty, and it looked more purple than red by how unclean it was; the walls had cracks on them and the paint wasn't good either. Gloyd would have liked to watch the sight for a longer time as it looked straight from those zombies movies scenes, but he noticed the other two were already walking ahead of him and he decided to catch up.

The door of the theater was open wide, so they walked in and tried to don't make any sound. Once inside, the prankster started to watch his surroundings again, trying to see how this place was like before the war happened; he saw the old images of show's schedules hanging from the walls, and many huge chandeliers that were filled with spider's threads.

"It was the main attraction back then." Dim Light's hushed voice made him turn his head quickly, surprised by the unexpected answer "Many came, then they would leave once show time was over… only to repeat the cycle over and over, but everyone loved this place in particular- we Trickery Treaters love any form of acting as it is a part of pranks, so it was usual to see this place full of people. It's… a shame to see it like this."

Viper, as he was between them, just lifted an eyebrow "Why are you tellin' usss thisss?" Of course, he couldn't read Gloyd's mind. But just as Dim Light was going to remark…

**SLAM!**

"Ahh!" The three boys jumped and hugged each other out of fear as they stared wide-eyes at the door that just slammed shut at their backs. The theater was now fully dark, with the exception of Dim Light's eyes.

"Sssherbet, it mussst know that we are here." Cursed Viper as he released his grip on the others, before feeling something that touched his foot. It made him nearly jump again, until the Reaper boy looked down and, with the help of his eyes' light, saw it was a lantern.

Dim Light picked the object and pressed the button, it was working just fine as it illuminated a good portion of the room "…Let's go, we can't split, this is obviously a set up." Gloyd nodded and soon they made their way into the building, passing through many entrances and corridors, not aware of something watching them from behind.

With each passing minute, the feeling of being lost made them nervous as everything looked the same with the clawed walls and the rotten food tainting the rug with rats devouring bits of it.

But it was a few steps later they saw something, another light right around the corner.

Without saying anything, and curious of what it would be, they decided to walk towards the light. They turned around the corner, and noticed that aside of it being a dead end, there was a door perfectly functioning with all the light bulbs working and a huge chandelier hanging, probably the biggest one they had seen in the theater.

But this confused them, why was this door so well kept?

Gloyd turned his head a little, and saw something that called his attention; it was a poster about a show called "Shadow Violin". It was a rather simple image at first glance, with a boy wearing a tuxedo and holding a simple violin in the middle of the stage, but as he stared for a while longer he noticed something. There were these odd dark purple swirls holding another two violins and a cello around the boy.

He knew he saw those swirls somewhere else, but for his misfortune he didn't recall where.

Not only that, but the boy in the picture had his face torn off, and there was no way he could be recognized.

"What now?" Viper looked at Dim Light as Gloyd walked towards the poster to get a closer view "There'sss no other way we can head to."

Dim Light looked rather unsure as they stood a few steps back from the prankster, and hummed "I do not trust this door. I also don't believe she's in there…"

They ignored a light clanking sound right above them, but Gloyd didn't.

He looked up and froze as he saw a certain shadow.

"Then where'sss-she!?" Viper hissed angrily "I won't leave without-!"

The clanking sound got even stronger and the two finally looked up, to see the chandelier falling right above them.

"LOOK OUT!" Gloyd pushed them away and jumped back just in time as the chandelier fell and was torn into pieces on the floor.

But it wasn't over yet as it made a huge hole and fell through it.

Viper's hood got hooked in one ornament, and was literally dragged down with it "AHHHH!"

"Viper!" Dim Light went after him, the two of them going down the hole to what seemed to be a basement. The sound of the shattered glass and other materials hitting the ground hard echoed for a while, until it all became silent.

Gloyd carefully got closer and looked down, eyes full of worry "Are you guys OK!?" There was no answer for a while, but then he saw two white orbs from below. He sighed as he knew it was the Reaper kid.

A groan soon was heard, and the snake boy's sarcastic voice sounded next "Hng… yeah, I'm fine, jussst broke my ribsss on the way down!" The prankster rolled his eyes, yeah, they were alright.

"Child, be careful." Dim Light helped Viper up "We'll find our way out, but I don't know how long we will take from here…"

"I will wait up here, just try and hurry up." Gloyd saw them leaving the room they were in, and sighed heavily. Things weren't looking up now. He backed from the hole and turned around.

His face then turned pale, the door was wide open.

And he heard a voice coming from inside the room that made him flinch.

Alongside the faith sound of a violin playing.

_'There's… so ma… at I… uld like… to say… you…'_ It sounded like a song.

And even if it sounded like a weak whisper, it was more than enough to make him feel light headed.

Gloyd walked inside slowly, and the door shut close with a loud bang, all the light bulbs exploding with the force of it.

* * *

After walking for what seemed like hours, the boys found what they were looking for: an exit, and a beloved one.

"Maria!?"

"Let's go!"

Viper ran with Dim Light next to him towards a huge mirror decorated with a Gothic-styled metallic arc; and in the reflection, the image of a small girl sitting while hiding her face in her hands was clear. She was wearing a black ribbon on her head with a simple grey dress and an umbrella next to her, her hair was pure white and her skin was near from being just as pale.

The snake themed boy stood in the front of the mirror and knocked on it multiple times, almost desperately "Maria! Maria!"

She looked up, her deep red eyes reflected sadness and fear at first, but then of both surprise and hope "Vi…per? How did you found me…?" Her voice sounded fairly young, and delicate.

"I received sssome help… oh code Maria, I'm ssso glad we found you." Viper sighed and smiled at her as she put her hands on the mirror from the other side, just right were his hands were "Come on, let'sss get you outta there."

"But how?" Maria looked worried "I-I… you won't break the mirror, right? Y-you'll get a curse!"

The snake boy sighed "Are you ssstill up with that darlin'…?" Viper looked at her with an assuring smile "I don't care about that curssse, essspecially if thisss isss the only way to get you out- which isss it. Now Maria, pleassse move back… I will do thisss quickly."

The girl nodded a bit nervously, oh, how much she wished her bad luck wouldn't affect them. She stood as far away as possible from the mirror, and just as he noticed she was far enough, Viper threw himself to the ground, quickly leaning on his palms to lifts his legs and spin, kicking the glass with a swift kick and successfully breaking it.

"Come out!" Called Dim Light. Maria looked at the shards scattered on the ground panicked, but decided to run from there quickly.

It was just when she jumped into Viper's arms that they noticed she was sealed into some kind of a room with the mirror being the only exit, and when she jumped out that room disappeared in thin air. The now normal breaking mirror was just standing there, but the Reaper kid grunted.

"I just can't help myself to notice how strong this creature had become…" He muttered.

Viper meanwhile was busy getting his face kissed by his adorable partner "D-darlin'! I missssed you too!" He blushed darkly "But, maybe thisss not the time...?"

"Oh, hush you!" She said as she stopped and then hugged him "I missed you so much… but don't scare me like that ever again!" Maria was clearly talking about the mirror. Viper just muttered an 'alright' and hugged her back.

Dim Light sighed, feeling happy for the pair to be reunited; besides, Viper blushing like that was just plain amusing to see "As much as I'm glad you're safe Maria, I'm afraid we need to leave quickly. Gloyd is still up there and we-"

**'KIYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!'**

"Eep!" Maria squeaked in fear "T-the Silhouette!" Viper held her protectively, looking at his surroundings to see if the monster would show up near them.

"Child!" Dim Light's eyes lit up strongly for a second "H-he must be in danger! The scream came from the first floor!"

The snake themed boy grunted "Come on! The exit is just there!" The three racers ran from the basement to the stairs that lead them to the first floor. They hurried through the corridors of the theater to reach the place Gloyd said he would wait at.

Dim Light turned around the corner and they finally arrived to the point they last saw Gloyd at; but at the sight of the broken light bulbs his panic raised and he got quickly inside the room. He looked everywhere for the boy, and finally he spotted him.

Gloyd was sitting on the floor just right in front of the scenery on his knees, eyes wide open and fixed on the ground. This was an alarm to them; the Silhouette must have done some damage to him.

"Gloyd!" Viper and the others got to his side fast, soon knelling next to him "What happened!? We heard that thing from the basssement!"

The Reaper shook him gently, snapping him out of his current state "You alright? Child, it didn't hurt you, did it?" He looked worried to death, almost anxious to know that Gloyd was alright.

The brunet looked at them, still seeming a bit out of place "…It…"

Maria looked at him shyly "Um, what…?"

"It…" He tried again, but he started to look panicked "It said… It said that it…"

"Yo, sssnap outta it!" Viper snapped his fingers in front of him "The hell happened!?"

"Viper!" Dim Light glared as he pushed the other's arm down with his sleeve "He's trying to tell us! Do not press-!"

_"It said that it knew me." _

Everyone widened their eyes towards Gloyd, who now looked out of the trance, but now fear was evident in his eyes.

* * *

From the outside, the tall shadowy figure was standing.

Carrying a worn-out violin in its hand.

It started to walk away, dropping the violin near the bushes, and hiding in the trees.

Humming a song along their path.

* * *

**A/N: AHHHHH MAN, I'm so happy I got it down! Again, my deepest apologies- this chapter is around 7.000 words while the others are around 6.000; I decided to add more words here as a little something for you guys to enjoy! Thanks for the patience and m****ay you have a good year! (Cuz 2014 was an AWFUL year in my case)**

**Don't forget to leave a review!**

**~DreamerAwaken**


	6. Dancing with the Death

**A/N: Well hello there people! Another update after such a long while! My apologies, but I'm back at school and thing's been on my nerves. Before starting I wanted to give you all an advise of a new page dedicated to my Trickery Treat characters, Trickery Treat Street! The page in on Tumblr and me with my friend have been uploading a lot of concept art, so feel free to go and see! The name of the blog is trickerytreatstreet, simple as that!**

**And also, I'll be hosting a few of HardWrapping's characters, why? Because they're awesome!**

**Now please, enjoy!**

* * *

"Alright, we arrived; it's a good thing we got here safely…" Minty looked at Vanellope "But I thought having Gloyd taking us out here was crucial?"

The raven girl sighed as Rufus watched them as a cat next to her feet "Well, as much as I don't want to say this, if the Silhouette REALLY wants to get rid of Gloyd then that means it would follow wherever he goes so… I guess we had this change to have you guys go back to Sugar Rush." Vanellope walked to the old bridge with Minty, Swizzle, Taffyta and Rancis following, with Rufus at the back "We have been gone for too long, and we need help, so as soon as you arrive-"

"Meaow! Hey!" The cat said suddenly, and they all turned at breakneck speed thinking that something was wrong, but they saw something different.

Rufus was standing on his back legs right at the beginning of the bridge, and pawing something frantically with his front legs. Taffyta squinted her eyes, and saw some kind of a blue light at the corners of his paws.

"What in the…?" She walked over to where Rufus was and knelled down, seeing the blue lights clearly. Vanellope got to her side and widened her eyes lightly as she recognized those.

It was the same shield that couldn't let her leave Sugar Rush when Turbo took over. And it was now keeping Rufus in the island.

The cat whined and dropped his ears as he kept pawing the shield "Don't go! I wanna say bye first!" He sounded desperate, and the raven girl could understand that.

Swizzle got to his side "Calm down! We are not leaving forever!" Still, he bent over lightly and pat the cat on his head, making him calm slightly. Soon the rest of the avatars followed and there were four couples of hands petting the cat and making him purr loudly.

"I will miss you still! Please don't take too long to return!" Rufus said between purrs and nuzzling the hands the best he could.

After a while of petting the cat boy, the boat finally arrived. The avatars took everything they brought and they stood by the bridge again. But as Rancis peeked in he saw something "Huh? Guys, there's a letter in here!" He picked it up and read it out loud "From the King of Sugar Rush to Vanellope Von Schweetz, urgent." He looked at the girl and offered the letter.

Vanellope opened it quickly and took out the paper "It says: Dear Vanellope, as much as I can understand your unusual long stay at Trickery Treat island, as you and your friends are probably enjoying yourselves in that place…" She huffed and muttered a 'yeah right' before continuing "…the parents of those who went with you and myself are worried for not hearing anything about you for weeks, and it's important that you all get back home, immediately. Your father."

"Oh boy…" Rancis rubbed his temple "Knowing dad and how worried he gets, I don't think I will be able to explain what's going on here."

"You guys have got to tell dad, I can't leave." The President reminded them "As soon as you get there, go straight to the castle and explain what's happening here, and also make sure that no one out of our game knows this! Just tell Jimmy and the others so we can get some help."

They all nodded and stood on the boat with their package, Swizzle was carrying both his pet and Vanellope's, who looked worried at her owner.

Vanellope pat her head one last time "I'll be fine, Whipcream, but I think you should be safe at home." She looked at her friends "You all should be."

And pressing the button, the boat started and they all took off, disappearing in the distance alongside the sound of the motor.

Vanellope stood there with the letter clutched on her chest, before turning to Rufus "Let's go, cat boy." She walked past him "Spellina must be waiting for us."

"Yeah!" He shuddered lightly "She hates waiting!... along with many other things."

* * *

"**Do you have any idea of how long you kept me waiting!?** Vanellope was waiting for you guys!"

That was Spellina's greeting to the ones that just arrived from the Theater.

The three boys backed a few steps, feeling weak under her glare. But as Maria moved from behind of them, the witch racer changed her glare for a worried expression "Mary!"

"Lina!" They hugged each other, clearly relieved of seeing the other. The guys sighed relieved and they moved inside the hidden spot, sitting on the sofa where Spook was waiting for his owner and the bat hurriedly went to snuggle with him.

The girls moved in too, and it was almost a shocking sight- Spellina was genuinely smiling!

For a short while anyways, there was another knock and soon the witch themed racer went to open the door with her usual sour face "Good to have you back as well, I take things went smoothly?"

Rufus rubbed his back against her legs "Yup! Nothing bad happened back there and the guys are back in their land-…" He turned to the other girl, his face breaking into a huge grin "Maria!"

The girl knelled down and picked him up, nuzzling him "Ruffy! I missed you too!" She smiled, turning to Vanellope "Oh, hello… I don't remember your face."

"Hey." The president smiled at her as she walked inside, spotting Gloyd with Spook on the sofa. Said boy smiled lightly at her as he caressed his bat on the head before she turned to Maria "I'm Vanellope, and-"

"You're here to help us like Gloyd?" She smiled "I'm so glad! We really need support!"

Vanellope blinked "They already explained it to you?"

"No, she guessed."Gloyd said "She did the same back there."

"Ssshe doesssn't guessss ssstuff." Viper hissed lightly "Maria isss known asss the 'Heart'sss Reflection', ssshe isss able to tell one'sss intentionsss."

Maria set Rufus down, and sat next to the snake themed boy leaning on his shoulder, this making him blush "Thanks for defending me, love, but it's alright! They don't mean any malice."

"S-sure, doll…" He muttered. Gloyd blinked impressed as Viper didn't make the snake sound, he sure got it bad. Vanellope then sat next to him and looked at him worriedly "Did anything happen back there?"

Gloyd sighed as he set Spook on his lap "Yeah… that thing appeared again, and it keeps filling me with questions…" The candy bat squeaked softly at him.

Dim Light stood near them "It just claimed to personally know Gloyd at the Theater." He sighed "And I also realized something… it seems to take advance of people's fear. It turned me into a killer, and it sealed Maria in a mirror that she herself wouldn't break for anything in the world."

Both Vanellope and Rufus widened their eyes, and Spellina just hummed in deep thought.

"Well… another thing to add in the list." The witch racer sat on the table "A creature that knows our deepest fears to take advance of us… and it makes me wonder something else."

She looked at Gloyd "What are you afraid of, Gloyd?"

The prankster blinked "Me? I'm not really scared of anything…" He thought about it "Well, I'm afraid of Rancis sometimes after I play a prank on him, and I'm also scared something like the Turbo fiasco happening again."

Spellina shook her head "No phobia or anything unlike most of us? Something that would make your world suddenly shatter?"

"No… I guess…" He mumbled.

"Then maybe, the creature only wants you because it's not sure of what you're scared of?" The witch racer rolled her eyes "I think that monster is just angry at you for not having a clear weak point."

"Spellina," Maria interrupted "That creature's heart is shattered."

Everyone turned to her, and even Spellina looked quite shocked "How do you know that?"

The girl played a bit with her long hair, nervous of all the stares, but Viper hissed lightly at them and she relaxed a bit "Um, well… when it caught me, I felt a strong wave of loneliness." She didn't meet any gaze "Loneliness... and it shocked me really; I also felt pain coming from it."

Dim Light looked confused "Pain as in, physical…?"

"No, emotional." Maria finally looked at them "Call me crazy, but I know what I felt. It was a mix of all bad things… but there is one that's still bothering me…"

"What isss it?" Viper was pretty into the new information.

"Guilt."

"Huh?" Dim Light blinked.

Maria nodded "Guilt. There's something that thing did and it rejects it. But I don't know how that's bonded with you, Gloyd…"

Soon silence followed, most of them were confused, a few of them unsure if to believe what they just heard, and one still not done talking.

"Um… also," She continued "I wasn't alone when it caught me. Faust was there."

"Faust!" Dim Light's eyes lit "I have been waiting to hear from him since I changed back!"

Gloyd turned to Rufus "He was never mentioned, who is that guy?" The black cat tilted his head at him.

"Faust was a critical victim of Lord Duskus' experiments." He changed back into a kid, sitting on his usual spot next to the fire "In fact, he died. In a way at least."

The two Sugar Rush racers widened their eyes, bat included. Spellina hummed lightly "Faust lost most part of his humanity. He turned into a ghost with no emotions; literally speaking, that guy's face is always blank."

"He wasss never one of many wordsss when 'alive' either." The snake themed boy added "I'm not exactly clossse to him, but he'sss not bad for assspirit."

"Of course not! We spirits are nice creatures mind you!" The reaper kid frowned lightly as he floated to their side "And Faust LeSoul is actually a good, hardworking person!"

"You seem to be close, huh… but where is that guy now?" Gloyd turned to Maria.

She looked worried "He's back at his place. But no longer like himself." The girl turned to Dim Light "I'm sorry, but Faust was turned into a monster by the Silhouette."

"Oh no…" He frowned.

Vanellope frowned "He was changed too!? I can't believe this! That thing needs to stop!"

"…" Gloyd looked away.

"Gloyd?" Rufus looked at him.

The prankster was looking down at his pet on his lap "…I'm not sure if to go now, you know?" Spook chirped softly at him, nuzzling his hand.

Maria hummed softly as she gazed at him, her mirror accessories glowing lightly for a few seconds "…I feel your uneasiness, and your growing fear." She looked at her friends "But, believe me, we're ALL scared."

"The only ones that can get him back safely are you two." The witch racer crossed her arms, but was looking rather calm "If I were in your shoes Gloyd, I wouldn't want to go outside and face that thing. But wouldn't you like to finally learn the truth?"

Gloyd looked up at her and blinked, she continued "Think about it. Maria just told us that creature has feelings, and who knows…" She shrugged "Maybe the feelings of guilt are because of you."

* * *

"WHAT!?"

"You can't be serious! A monster terrorizing the new island?"

"We're telling the truth guys!" Rancis, Taffyta, Minty and Swizzle were with the rest of the avatars after the long ride "The avatars there are trapped because of that thing hunting them down!" The blonde racer was telling them everything that had happened since they returned, still exalted.

Candlehead looked worriedly at her two best friends "And Vanny?"

Taffyta turned to her "Back at that place with Gloyd." She groaned and rubbed her temples "We don't have any details, but it seems there's something about Gloyd that keeps that thing away."

"That's weird." Jimmy then scowled "But if they're in danger, we should go to help!"

"Yeah!"Snowanna looked at them "We must go there right now!"

"Not so fast guys." Everyone turned to Minty "Look, as much as they are in danger, we can't leave just now! We need to tell King Candy first- maybe he can do something about that thing from here!"

"Speaking of which…" Patrick started.

"…We heard him a while ago talking about something about that island." Petty finished "And with Gloyd's parents too."

"Were you two seriously spying on the King?" Tea frowned at them, and the twins looked a bit scared.

"We were…"

"…very bored!"

Larry sighed "Okay… what did you two heard?" Jubileena was next to him, holding hands.

Patrick crossed his arms "It was mostly about Gloyd. Something's off in his code box I guess."

"And his parents are worried about it, but King Candy can't seem to work it out." Petty mimicked his twin's pose.

Swizzle seemed confused "Gloyd's code is having problems? It can't be, he seemed just fine right there!"

Rancis nodded "He wasn't glitching or anything…" He suddenly stopped, and blinked "But… maybe that's not what's wrong!"

"What do you mean?" Jimmy raised a brow as he patted Walf.

The blonde racer turned to the crew "Before leaving, we heard something weird. It was about Gloyd living back at the island years ago, but we all know Gloyd's been here since day one!"

All the avatars seemed quite shocked to hear that, especially the ones originally from Sugar Rush; Crumbelina stepped in front "Do you think King Candy is trying to figure that out?" She asked "I guess his parents must know about it!"

"That's possible, but…" The green haired boy looked unsure "I mean… Gloyd's my bro, why wouldn't he tell me about that place? Plus, he himself didn't seem to remember living there."

Taffyta looked at him "But he did recognize a few things, right? Such as that Dim Light guy."

"Who?" Dough asked and Candlehead shrugged. Manny decided to ignore them "What should we do?"

"Vanellope needs support." Minty started "She said to ask you guys for help because that thing back there is able to put a Game Over to anyone, so we can't let anyone out of the arcade to know this."

Adorabeezle nodded "Come on, King Candy must hear this!" All the racers hopped into their karts, and they drove straight to the castle.

* * *

"Just you and me?"

"Well… Viper wanted to be with Maria."

"Ah, young love!" Dim Light chuckled as he closed the door of Spellina's house and they started to walk towards their destination, this time going west of their location "But, I'm sure we'll be fine on our own, child… What about your special someone?"

Gloyd blushed lightly "My spe… Vanellope." He corrected himself, blushing harder as Dim Light gave him a playful stare "I really don't want her to be in danger, you know…" He muttered as he looked away.

"Hm, you think this issue about you and the creature will hurt her beyond words, or risking her safety for your own problems…" The spirit looked ahead, Gloyd looked at him.

"…How do you know those things?"

Dim Light shrugged "I'm just a spirit in a cape."

The boy groaned lightly as he heard that line "Right…" They kept walking off road between the trees, as it seemed to help them hide for any potential danger.

Well, the only danger there was anyways.

But not even the eerie and quiet forest couldn't get Spellina's words off Gloyd's mind, or the feeling of something wrong about to happen. Either way, it was all linked to the Silhouette.

The prankster sighed lowly as he remembered the occurred in the Theater "All these events and mysteries will turn me into scrap code…"

"You wouldn't be the first feeling that way." Dim Light replied calmly as he gazed at him "…Or rather.., it wouldn't be the first time you have felt this way."

"What…?" Gloyd looked at him with his eyes lightly narrowed "What do you mean?" He spotted a very tight space which was completely blocked by dry branches, yet their path seemed to continue through them.

"Nothing at all." Dim Light moved the branches out of the way and allowed Gloyd to pass first; and changing subjects he continued "If my memory's not rusty, Faust's mansion was pretty far away from here, and the only shortcut is between the trees... as long as we don't get lost."

Gloyd avoided as many branches as he could, and also watched the ground to don't trip over anything "Then let's speed it up, last thing we need is... you know." He grimaced lightly.

"I do..." The reaper kid nodded softly as they finally passed through the knot of dried up branches and trees "Besides, I won't rest in peace until we get to Faust and help him out of this." The prankster eyed him for a bit as they continued their walk.

"You two are close, aren't you?" He smiled lightly, and Dim Light chuckled, his eyes looking to a side "Close? We spirits must stick together no matter what! And boy, aren't we fond of each other…" He coughed lightly, and Gloyd blinked.

But instead of saying anything, he just looked ahead "Don't worry, we'll get him back safely… but, is it really true?" He looked at his friend "He… died?"

Dim Light nodded softly, a light sigh escaping his lips "Yes indeed… well, as far as the code says- we are all the same since day one so to speak." He explained "Faust, in our eyes, was always a ghost. But he knows something happened to him, and that was without doubt around the time our Mayor lost control of himself when he decided to 'upgrade' us."

"That Mayor guy was a huge pain huh… I guess it's a good thing he got taken care of." He looked away, and something came to his mind "But how do we relate?"

"Huh?" The spirit looked at him.

Gloyd looked ahead, recognizing what seemed to be a huge house in the horizon "The Silhouette came from that Duskus' house, right? If he was able to change all of you, maybe he could have also created his little sidekick… but what does this sidekick wants from me?" He looked bothered again, and Dim Light hummed in deep thought; what indeed.

The reaper kid soon spotted the mansion too, and turned to Gloyd "First things first." He pointed ahead "We must approach his place carefully; Faust is the last avatar, and without doubt the Silhouette will try to strike us."

A sudden shiver ran up to Gloyd's spine, just taking in the gravity of the situation- two very close encounters with the creature were probably enough in this life. Nodding his head weakly, he followed his friend through more branches and rocks, until they made it the mansion "Wait… this place is a hotel?"

Faust's mansion looked like the classical French building, but as expected, the four story building was heavily damaged and the once lilac painting it had was now grey and peeling from the walls. A huge wooden door decorated by an ivory arc, and the windows were huge with white accents, but a few roots made their way up the walls of the lower floor and most of those things were either broken or damaged in big parts.

There was also a huge sign that seemed to have fallen from the roof, the broken neon words having 'Clair de Lune Hotel' displaying on it.

"Moonlight Hotel… never saw such a depressing sight of Faust's most prized possession- his own house…" Sighed Dim Light "…So I was right about the Silhouette's ability." He turned to Gloyd "But if we get Faust out of there, that… monster wouldn't hurt anyone anymore."

Nodding silently, the boy once again followed behind Dim Light's steps, taking in the huge, dead garden at the side of the rugged place. He noticed some black roses, and stopped his tracks.

The roses… looked fresh, unlike the rest of the garden.

If the Silhouette knew Faust's fear of destroying his place, then why keep those roses intact?

Or was someone else trying to fix this place, starting from the garden?

"Child!" Called Dim Light in a low whisper, calling his attention. "Come quick! I found an entrance!"

"A-alright!" He gave the flowers one more confused glance, before reaching the reaper kid's side. Dim Light pushed a wooden door open, cracking very softly in front of them as they saw the interior of the destroyed Hotel, and it didn't make it look better- it was just a mere corridor that guided the hostages to the gardens, with a few elegant cushions what were now ripped and the house of small rodents that scattered across the room.

Gloyd gulped as he noticed the corridor continued and there was nothing but darkness ahead. He saw enough scary movies to know what would happen if they went in; but Dim Light was determined to save the racer and started to walk ahead "Wait up!" The prankster whispered as he followed the reaper kid. More things came to view, and just like back in the Theater, Gloyd could make the image of this place before it's destruction: A place so fancy that not even Rancis or Crumbelina would set a foot in to keep it clean.

"That's Faust to you…" Muttered his friend, clearly reading his mind.

They kept walking, only guided by the light emerging from the young reaper's eyes, until they finally arrived to the Hall. It somehow seemed like the part of the Hotel that received most damage, seeing there were at least a hundred claw marks in the floors, walls, and the wooden reception. Dim Light growled under his breath, recognizing the Silhouette already made its part of marking this place as its own.

The prankster was looking at every corner of the room, trying to take in as much as possible. But as he kept looking for any threat he started to hear something. Sobbing. And really close to them.

He looked at Dim Light "Do… do you hear that?" The spirit nodded and started to look out for the sound, which seemed to be coming from the reception. Walking over it carefully, the two looked over, and spotted a tiny light on the floor "What the…?"

The sobbing came from a little ghost, that had not a human appearance, but a chibi-like one. It was covering its eyes with its short, nubby arms as it cried. The ghost soon felt like it was being watched, and looking up, it released a loud chirp of fright.

"Ah!" Dim Light took the little ghost and covered its mouth "This is one of Faust's servants!"

"For a minute I thought that this was Faust…" Muttered Gloyd, before facing the small spirit who looked up miserably at him "Poor fella, must be terrifying to be in here."

The little ghost chirped lowly, and Dim Light released him "But they are hundreds of these little guys, and only the receptionist is here. This is not normal." He lowered his head to the ghost's eye level "Where's everyone?"

Before answering, it went behind the table and took out a small piece of paper and offered it to Gloyd, who read it out loud "'I'm Larry'... So that's your name?"

Larry nodded his head, and started making motions for the boys as it seemed this ghost couldn't talk. He moved his arms up and down and made a low groaning sound, mimicking something "…Zombie?" Dim Light blinked, but Gloyd understood "The Silhouette!" The ghost nodded and then took a stale bag of marshmallows from the counter, a black marker and made sad faces in at least ten of them, presenting them to the boys.

"Uh, the Silhouette made the marshmallows cry?" The spirit looked more confused now, but Larry made a sad face that looked just like the ones in the stale treats, and Gloyd seemed to get it again "Are those the rest of the ghosts?" Larry nodded and Dim Light huffed very lightly "They are still marshmallows though…"

Larry started to make low groaning sounds again, picked the marshmallows, and put them inside a little box that was quickly shut. The reaper boy finally seemed to understand "So your friends were trapped also? I see now." He looked at Gloyd "Without helpers, a business this big would go down in seconds."

Nodding, Gloyd turned to Larry "Where are they?" He looked very scared and hid behind the counter again "I know you're scared, alright…" The brunet looked over and saw Larry on the floor doing the fetal position. Gloyd looked sad for the tiny ghost, but this sadness was slowly turning into determination.

"We're here to help." The little ghost looked up at him "I don't care if it's just two of us, we'll get your friends and Faust back!"

Dim Light nodded "Well said, child." He turned to Larry, who now started to float away from the floor "Larry, we need you to guide us to where your friends are at." With a weak nod and a gulp, the small ghost helper floated away and they followed behind.

They went through another corridor that lead to a white stairway, and it somehow didn't seem like it would fall by any minute _'Then again,'_ Gloyd figured _'it was mostly used by the ghost servants, they only float.'_ It was after a few more steps they reached their destiny, the second floor.

Dim Light looked at Larry "What about the other two floors? There is nothing there?" The little ghost shook his head and floated into the corridor, but squeaked in fear and hid behind of the prankster. Gloyd sighed and looked at Dim Light, who lifted his sight in the corridor "…There's nothing there; I don't feel the presence of anything unlike in the Theater." He said after a minutes of silence, and turned to Larry "It's OK, you can take us to where you believe your friends are at."

Peeking lightly from behind of Gloyd, Larry nodded and guided them. Both lights from Dim Light's eyes and Larry's body glow were more than enough to lit the dark corridors, and Gloyd kept an eye out just in case- it didn't matter to him that the Silhouette wasn't around, he couldn't fall for another trap, not again.

That's when they started to hear noises, not very clear ones, but it sounded like a chorus or something because they were just too many tones to be just made by one person, or being. The three looked ahead and ran towards it, the noises getting stronger with each step they took, and they still couldn't make any audible words, but Larry did; he squeaked at them and pointed to a door.

There was a rather strong purple light coming from the other side, and Dim Light hurriedly got in front of it, and not waiting for any opinion he kicked the door open.

They came face-to-face with the specter that was once called Faust. And before they registered it Dim Light went flying to the wall behind of them.

"Ahh!" Gloyd shouted as the ghost attacked Dim Light with a swing of his arm, before releasing an ear-bleeding screech and fleeing from the scene. The prankster got quickly out of his shocked state and ran to Dim Light as Larry got into the room were his friends were trapped at "Dim Light! Are you OK!?"

"Ugh… I believe so." He stood up and sighed at the direction Faust left "Being attacked by your boyfriend is rather shocking, anyways…"

He stared blankly at the other "…Did you just came out to me?"

But before he could answer, a little pained yelp called their attention, and saw that Larry was now on the floor, holding his little nubby arm with the other. They stood up and dashed to his side "What attacked you? It wasn't the Silhouette, was it?" Asked the reaper kid with a frown, but instantly relaxed when the smaller ghost just shook his hand and pointed the cage that was retraining the other ghost servants.

Gloyd looked at them and felt his anger boil at the sight: over a hundred little ghosts inside a cage that was made to retrain no more than thirty. They were all squeezed inside of it, faces pressed against the bars as they all whined out of fear and pain.

That's when he also saw some kind of a barrier protecting the cage, which undoubtedly was the thing that hurt Larry. There was some kind of energy that gave a few shocks to the poor ghosts that accidentally touched the barrier, another excuse for them to squeeze themselves further into the claustrophobic prison.

"Can't take this any longer." He growled lightly as he kept watching the poor servants suffering, before turning to Dim Light "We need to take them out of there, think your scythe can break this thing?"

Nodding, Dim Light took out his necklace and spins it, soon turning into the deadly weapon. He held it up, and swiftly moved it to slash the barrier with the intention to split it in half.

The scythe bounced on it, and the force made Dim Light to shoot back just like before, hitting the wall even harder this time and releasing a painful scream. Gloyd widened his eyes as he looked this all develop in slow motion.

He saw his friend getting hurt right in front of his eyes twice, he saw Larry crying as his hope was dying, he saw and heard the other ghosts, suffering and calling for them for being rescued.

He knew the Silhouette would kill his friends if they never made it.

Gloyd finally snapped.

Kicking the floor strongly, the prankster let out a deafening cry. And next thing they knew the ground shook and hundreds of vines shoot out from the floor, surrounding the barrier and destroying it to bits.

* * *

"Was that an earthquake?" Spellina looked up as she felt a sudden movement. Everyone looked up as they nodded "Odd… Trickery Treat Island never had earthquakes before, or the game in general, this can't be a coincidence."

Viper looked at her from Maria, who was resting on his chest "You mean sssomething bad jussst happened?" This called Vanellope's attention as she turned to the witch racer, who just hummed in thought "There is a chance…"

"GUYS!" Rufus bolted inside, eyes wide "You wouldn't BELIEVE what just happened!"

Maria yawned softly and looked at him "What's wrong, Ruffy…?" Her soft voice made Viper blush lightly as he kissed her forehead.

"Flowers!" He jumped on his four legs "Pretty, shiny flowers! All around the town's square!"

"What!?"Spellina stood up "Are you serious?" The rest of the racers that belong to the island looked shocked as well "I haven't seen flowers since the war!"

Rufus ran in circles "Well, they're back! And the candy people are so happy!" He jumped on the table she was next to and laid on his back "Can we go out and play too?"

While Spellina was telling Rufus that wasn't going to happen, a shadow was looking straight at the golden flowers growing in the forest.

The Silhouette was soon out of there.

* * *

"You have got to tell me how you did that."

"I-I told you, I don't know!" Gloyd was looking at the vines from earlier as all the ghosties were freed from the cage, all of them hurt, but happy to see Larry and Dim Light. The prankster was too shocked about what just happened "I just got freaked out and-…"

"Child," Dim Light put his sleeve on Gloyd's shoulder "it's alright. I understand this is crossing the line, which is why we must focus and rescue Faust."

All the ghosts agreed, floating in circles around the two, their bodies starting to glow and lighting the room. Seeing all those lights made Gloyd to start relaxing, being reminded of the fireflies he would watch at night with Spook. He nodded and turned to Dim Light "What's the plan?"

The reaper boy looked away for a while, and then looked at the ghosties "Do you, my little friends, posses the instruments of the ballroom?" They nodded "Good, because I believe that's where he went to. And there is where we should go too."

"Uh, what?"Gloyd looked confused, but Dim Light just chuckled.

"Did you know Faust loves to dance? Every time he had a hard day, we would spend the night dancing in the ballroom." The reaper seemed to smile "And he used to tell me, all the time, that dancing was the best way to get rid of the demons inside of him."

The prankster just seemed more confused "OK, so…?"

Dim Light turned to the ghosts, and they were all carrying instruments while sporting smiles "Faust went to the ballroom, he wants to dance…" The reaper smiled wider "So, we'll dance!"

* * *

"Oh my gob…"

"That's why we are here, King Candy!" Minty finished telling the tale to their ruler, with all the racers and Gloyd's parents, who happened to be there, in the throne room "They are in need of help right away, and that creature is getting closer to them by each passing minute!"

Lady Pumpkin and Lord Gourd looked near from panicked, a rare sight to be seen "But… why!?" She said "What does that thing wants with Gloyd? It doesn't make sense!"

Jimmy intervened, his hands turned into fists "We need to get to them and help as backup! I don't know what are we dealing with right now, but I won't sit here and see another ruckus goin' on!"

Kind Candy held his hands up "Then it's settled!" He frowned deeply "We'll be escorting a few of you and my guards to take down that Silhouette you keep mentioning!" The Oreo guards stood firmly at the door, signaling they were ready to go.

"We still need people here however, and I think we have to take just Manny and Tea or Fang for this one." Taffyta stated "That thing already gave Vanellope a hard time, so it's not like we all can go there."

"Aw come on!" Jimmy looked a bit annoyed.

"That's so…"

"…not cool!" Said the twins.

Swizzle turned to them, looking straight at Jimmy however "If something happens there we'll call you guys for support, plus, you're staying with Crumbelina."

The white haired boy blinked and then smirked at her "That I can take!" The girl rolled her eyes lightly "Oh joy."

Tea stepped in front, right next to Fang "I supposed then that I'll stay in case you need me, but who else is coming?"

"I will." Said Swizzle "Gloyd's my bro, and bro's don't leave each other hanging."

"…Us too."

Everyone turned to Lord Gourd, Minty looked unsure "I don't know if that's a good idea, mister…"

Lady Pumpkin frowned lightly "Good idea? I don't care about that! My poor pumpkin patch is out there, and that Island had been bothering us since he left!" The racers seemed confused at that.

"What do you mean?" Adorabeezle crossed her arms, but not in a taunting manner "Is there something that you guys know about that place?"

The two adults looked down, and after a while, they said at the same time "If we knew… we probably wouldn't have let Gloyd go to that place."

* * *

Gloyd and Dim Light were standing out of the biggest room that was in the hotel, the ballroom. They were noises coming from inside as they discussed their plan.

"Ok, so you just need me to bring him here?"

"I'm sure you can do that! Larry will go with you and will give you a boost if you need to run." He chuckled "Now go, we can't waste so much time." Nodding his head, both boy and ghost ran towards the dark corridor and disappeared from sight.

Dim Light entered the ballroom in complete silence, and saw the little ghosties setting everything up with incredible speed despite their injuries. They already hanged all the crystal chandeliers and even replaced all the broken bulbs, and the tables were finely presented with silver framed porcelain plates and white tablecloths. The floor was wiped clean, and a few other servants were getting their instruments ready and fixing the illumination of the room.

"I think this looks as good as day one… well done." The reaper looked at the door "This won't be a romantic deal, but it'll work, hopefully…" Everything was ready, but only thing missed was…

"HERE HE COMES!"

"Oh, alright then." He looked at the ghosties and gave the signal to shut the lights. Soon the spectral screams of Faust were approaching and Gloyd bolted into the room with Larry, jumping under a table for safety.

The reaper kid could feel his heart beating quite hard as he waited in the darkness. The specter was looking around in the room, confused of such surroundings that weren't there minutes ago.

"NOW!" Gloyd shouted as he jumped out of the room and locked the door closed, and so did a few more servants with other three doors that connected the hotel with the ballroom.

Faust screeched with the intention to leave and start another chase, but right then, a beam of light fell on him, and then it moved to where Dim Light was standing, looking away. The specter froze as he saw the other, unaware that Gloyd had reached the second floor and was watching them from a balcony with Larry.

Violins started to play in the background, and it seemed they made the specter snap out of the trance as he went straight to Dim Light. But the reaper just avoided him as if he was dancing.

Actually, he was.

"Well, hello there, little boy! Don't be shy! Step right up! I'm a reasonable guy." His eyes shone as Faust tried to attack him. But he just danced along and kept on singing.

"Don't be frightened by the look in my eye…!" He grabbed the specter's wrist and brought him close, face-to-face "I'm just your average evil meteor from outta the sky!"

Dim Light threw the ghost with a simple spin to the other side of the room. The specter looked like some kind of tornado as it was ejected from the hold and stopped right at the middle of the ballroom. Once the dizziness was over, he tried to strike again, but froze.

Faust saw the reaper dancing, and singing, with all the servants playing the background music. They all looked so happy in that horrid place his hotel was now.

But why? There was nothing else to enjoy there.

Getting his curiosity get the best of him, he just floated over and watched they perform. Dim Light smiled, and offered one sleeve to the other, who slowly took it with his now long and pointy fingers.

He started to dance again, guiding Faust "Well, I'm just shy and scared of this place, I'm just a fish outta water from outer space. You can see that the trip has left me tired and drained. So why don't you be a pal…" Dim Light brought him to his eye level, his eyes glowing softly "And bring me some brains?"

Gloyd watched this all from above with a smile on his face, and it only widened when the ghost started to dance along with Dim Light. They twirled and moved all across the rooms, the little ghosties starting to clap along Dim Light's voice.

He continued, having the time of his life to be dancing again with someone he deeply missed "Brains, brains, I won't lie! I'll eat their brains 'til they're zombified-" A soft purple hue was radiating from the Faust as they twirled, and he was changing back right there "Sure they might think it's deranged, but they won't give it a thought after I've eaten their brains!"

The light died down, and now there was a ghost boy standing in front of Dim Light as they held hands and now he was the one leading the other. "Brains, brains, it's okay! It's not a matter if it isn't gray. And if at first they think it's strange, they won't think twice if they don't have a brain!" He said.

Everyone cheered and continued to dance, and just cheered louder when the host said "I see now… the heart is where the people are, and not in the services we bring."

Gloyd was leaning on the door frame as he watched them all celebrate, everything was suddenly OK.

But then he felt something was wrong as they returned to dance. He felt something watching him over, and whipped his head to see at the dark corridor.

There were eyes there.

"Creep into the donut stop, sneak in, tip-top past the cop. Pick me up a cruller and a cupful of tea, and any other sweetbreads you happen to-"

**"****DIM LIGHT!"**

They both looked up, and all the cheers died.

The Silhouette was holding Gloyd by the front of his t-shirt, looked at him straight in the eyes, and the boy passed out in its grasp.

And releasing an echoing shriek, it was gone with Gloyd, just to have another shout from Dim Light following.

"CHILD!"

* * *

**A/N: I AM DONE FOR NOW -Faints- **

**So yeah! Suspense! What will happen to Gloyd? And what is that evil entity the Silhouette planning to do to him? You'll find out in the next chapter! And in case you might wonder what was Dim Light singing, well, it's a song from Billy &amp; Mandy, and it's called (Try to guess.) Brains! I always pictured Dim Light with that voice, so I hope you liked that!**

**Don't forget to leave a review! (MY ENERGY REQUIRES THEM)**

**~DreamerAwaken out.**


	7. Memories Left Behind

**A/N: A lot of stuff had happened on the past months- most of them bad things, but most are over and in the past- and with school nearly ending, I was able to find my time to write this chapter, and it's the longest one yet! Hope you enjoy, and leave a review!**

* * *

There were whispers next to him. He was sure of that.

In the darkness of where he was, he heard something... someone. Whoever was there, they were breathing calmly, and whispering inaudible words. Were they talking to him?

Gloyd tried to open his eyes, but all he could do was to groan softly. The breathing stopped abruptly, and silence then came.

He tried to open his eyes again, feeling them flutter, but nothing. Gloyd groaned again as he came into, feeling his surroundings as he still stood inside the dark void. Where was he? He felt something soft under him, probably a cushion, was he at Spellina's place? Did he faint again?

_'…ke…?'_

The whispers started again, so did the breathing, but it wasn't as calm at before.

No, this wasn't Spellina's place, there was something… different. He _did_ know something was off. It didn't _feel_ like the hideout, or smell like old books and firewood. This place smelt more like dust, and wet wood.

_'…u…aw…ke?'_

It seemed the whispers were directed at him, after all.

_'You awake.'_ He thought, finally seeming to understand them, the voice wasn't familiar, not at _all_, but he guessed it was because he was dizzy. It was probably one of his friends making sure he was conscious, so he answered. "…Y-yeah…"

The whispers ended, the breathing didn't. They were probably expecting him to wake up and stand on his own, so he tried. Gloyd realized he was lying on his back, so he tried to sit up, but felt… something softly trying to push him back down, it wasn't a hand, was it a blanket? He didn't know.

He decided to lay down again, but Gloyd was a bit frustrated, just what happened? He remember the mansion, the little ghost servants. He remembered Dim Light dancing, and singing, doing his best to bring his…' boyfriend', back to normal. It was weird for him to think about that last thing, but he knew it wasn't a big deal.

...And then, what else happened? Faust started to dance as well, didn't he? Both he and Dim Light did, and the little ghosties were happy, everyone was happy… but then…

Gloyd's mind finally snapped as he finally remembered what really did happen.

**The Silhouette.**

The prankster's eyes snapped open as he stood up, he was on a bed, and that's all he saw of the place he was in when he whipped his head to a side and saw it right there, watching him.

"AHHH!" He shouted and jumped back as he realized how dangerously close the Silhouette was- it was literally _looming_ over him! Gloyd's back hit the wall as he tried to move back and away from the monster, soon his panic raising as he couldn't find a quick exist.

However, he soon noticed something, the Silhouette wasn't moving.

In fact, it was just sitting there, _staring_ at him blankly. Gloyd's breathing started to slow down a few minutes later, and swallowing, he quickly looked to all directions to know where he was, but as expected, it was a place he didn't know about.

They were in a single room, with a bed, and Gloyd soon noticed it was the… room of a boy. There were old trophies on broken shelves, and a few toys, as well as books. Surprisingly, only the trophies were in a very poor state, because they were broken in a few parts, and the golden cover was almost completely peeled off, showing the years of accumulated dust on the metal parts.

Gloyd saw something else, a huge window that lead to a balcony, so he knew he was in a second or higher floor. But as much as he wanted to believe that could be his way out, he couldn't, because the window was blocked by wood planks, and taking them out with the creature right there wasn't really smart.

Speaking of which, Gloyd turned his sight towards the Silhouette, it hasn't moved from that spot and just continued to stare at him, and just now he realized something else- he wasn't… feeling attracted to it, like the other times they encountered. He felt the world around him unlike the first time at the Town's Square or the Theatre, so he guessed that the creature had no need to lure him over anymore now that he was… trapped.

Gloyd looked down, thinking, now he was trapped, how could he let it happen? He should have been more careful, but now there wasn't much he could do… still, there was something.

Picking up the courage, he faced the monster in front of him again, and spoke lowly, failing to hide his own fear, and it wasn't easy for him to feel afraid. "Why… why did you bring me here?"

The Silhouette blinked slowly. _'…'_

The prankster tried again, desperately wanting to know. "Why-!"

_'I heard you.'_

He flinched as he heard the whisper echoing lightly in his head, and looked up in shock as the creature stood and faced him down, but instead of walking closer to where the prankster was, it sat on a corner of the room, away from Gloyd.

The brunet blinked confused at this, was the creature truly scared of him like he was?

The monster continued. '_I...want you to... remember.'_

"Remember… remember what?" Gloyd stood from the bed and faced the Silhouette. "I don't know what's going on! What do you know!?"

'_…A lot…'_ It looked away.

The prankster was starting to get fed off. "Then why don't you just tell me? You caught me! If you are going to do anything to me, the least thing you can do-!"

Suddenly, it stood up tall above him and faced Gloyd, making him freeze.

_**'I WON'T HURT YOU!'**_

The scream made Gloyd cover his ears, and judging from his shivering frame, it was clear he was more scared than before. He couldn't take this frustration anymore, so he sunk to his knees, and broke down in tears.

"I…I don't…" He hiccupped and punched the floor. "I don't understand…! I don't understand ANYTHING!" Questions filled his head. "What is place!? What do I have to remember!? I'M TIRED OF THIS!" He shouted angrily, not facing the creature.

Gloyd then felt something, wrapping his frame, and obscuring his sight. Knowing what it was, he tried to push the monster off him, but he couldn't, he was too weak. Gloyd gave up and continued to cry as he felt that odd sensation covering him, and then feeling himself being held and put on the bed.

_'S…rry, I'm so…y… I…want t… elp… you…not hu…t you…'_ The Silhouette spoke broken whispers again as Gloyd had his head rested on the pillows, feeling his stomach burning by how frustrated he was.

But he couldn't do anything at that moment, other than let the creature speak, and apologize. Gloyd would have asked himself why the creature was being almost 'nice' to him, but he started to feel way too exhausted to even think. Eventually, he lost consciousness.

Last thing he remembered, were those claw like fingers brushing his bangs, and an oddly familiar song that, in an instant, stopped his frustration.

* * *

Swizzle stood at the bay back in Sugar Rush with Minty, Fang, Manny, and many Oreo and Gumball guards that were requested to help them with the current situation going on at the new land. They waited for the boat to arrive, but the anxious look on Swizzle's was rather clear.

He knew what he saw there, and it probably wasn't a matter that could be solved by a few guards- luck wasn't on their side; the whole crew of racers would have left to save their friends, but the Arcade was open, and there wasn't much to be done about it other than take whoever was there to pick. He sighed as he thought about it, and decided to sit down to try and ignore all the low chances for them to have, Minty looked down at him, she looked worried as well as she also knew about the situation building there.

Fang crossed his arms and snorted. "Don't worry Swizzle, once we get there we'll settle all of this."

Manny, on the other hand, looked bored. "I can't believe we're being called to handle ghosts and monsters." He said, sounding skeptical. "This whole situation sounds so weird."

The way he acted bothered Swizzle, but there was no point arguing about it. "I'm worried for Gloyd." He muttered, not meeting their glances. "And I'm worried about Vanellope and the others too, but Gloyd's being the prey back there."

"I'm sure we'll take care of that thing before it hurts them, or anyone else for the matter." Minty tried to be positive to help the other calm down, she knew Swizzle was very close friends with Gloyd. "This will be solved as long as we keep our heads up."

Swizzle glanced at her, and gave a faint nod. Just then the sound of a boat's motor was heard and they saw their rides finally arriving. "Alright," Swizzle stood up and dusted his pants off. "Let's go, we go in one ship and the guards in the other."

Fang nodded. "Yosh. If this thing is as dangerous as you say, I think we should scout first anyway. Our guards are loyal and all, but I'm not sure they can handle a threat like this."

"Where should we head first? I assume you want to find Vanellope and Gloyd." Manny said tipping his hat. "Or maybe we could split up, one of us could find them, and the other could deal with this 'Silhouette' thing."

The boat arrived and Swizzle decided to get on first, the guards boarding the other ship as well. Minty looked back at Manny. "Vanellope is at another racer's home, called Spellina. We must head there because it's a safe hideout, and we should check if everyone is alright."

"Yes, getting to them takes priority. We need to make sure they're OK." Fang said as the balled his fist up.

As Minty tried to come aboard however, she noticed Swizzle was looking at the floor with wide eyes, terrified. "Swizzle? What's wrong?"

"…We need to get there, now." He dashed and started to type the direction of the island. Confused, Minty looked at what Swizzle was staring at, and her eyes widened too.

The words **'HE IS MINE'** were crafted on the wooden floor.

Manny looked down at the message with narrowed eyes. Whoever this Silhouette was, they must have been pretty desperate to get their hands on Gloyd. If they got Gloyd first, then the Silhouette was sure to come for them as well. And then he could put an arrow into whoever, or whatever, this thing was. "Let's get moving."

Starting the boat's destination without further delay, Swizzle slammed his hand into the button. Almost instantly the vehicle roared to life and they took off, leaving the other boat with the guards behind, but they knew they would catch up.

It's wasn't long until the clear sky of Sugar Rush turned into the mix of dark clouds and moonlight of Trickery Treat, the ocean starting to get covered by a thin cape of mist as they made their way towards the land.

"Place is trying a little too hard to be scary, isn't it?" Many said rolling his eyes.

"It certainly has a creepy aura to it." Fang noted, the land coming to his view and the boat stopping in front of the silent bay.

Swizzle gulped lightly as they walked through the old and creaky bridge, facing the dark forest ahead. "…" He walked towards the path Rufus showed them. "This way guys, we gotta find a friend first."

It was just like the day they arrived, the silence was the most uncomfortable thing to bear right there. The wind blew through the dry branches of the dead trees, and they could occasionally stop at every loud crack, only to continue a few seconds later.

"I hate this part…" Muttered Minty as they walked, keeping an eye out to see if they could find him.

Manny kept looking around. The silence was really starting to annoy him despite how he felt at first about this place. "Man, this place really is creepy. Aren't there any animals in this place? It's like the whole forest is empty."

Fang rubbed his chin. "It is pretty quiet. Maybe when this is over I can come here to meditate."

The archer boy rolled his eyes. "Not my point…"

A sudden movement in the bushes nearly made them all jump, before a purring sound became evident. Both Swizzle and Minty sighed relieved as they knew who it was.

Manny let out a sigh as well. _'Just some cat'_ He thought. That was close, he almost shot an arrow at it. "Stupid cat." He muttered as he fixed his hat.

"Like if you're the smart one, Robin Hood!" The sudden voice caused both Sweet Tooth racers to freeze while the other two just exchanged lightly amused glances. The black cat walked out of the bush and glared at Manny. "Gosh, do you kiss your mom with that mouth?"

Manny looked shocked. He turned to Fang who simply shrugged. The archer then sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose. "…You know what, I'm not going to ask why there's a talking cat in here." Rufus meowed and rubbed his body and head against Swizzle's legs as Minty pet him, looking very happy to see his friends again. "Between the ghosts, the monsters, and whatever else is here, I'm just going to go along with it."

"Hmm, but talking animals, that's interesting." Fang said as he knelt down to look at Rufus up close. "Do all the cats talk on this island, or is it just this one?"

Rufus looked up at him, and gave him a playful smile. "Don't be scared of a kitten!" His body started to shine with a faint red light, making Fang to stand up quickly and take a few steps back as Rufus changed into his normal self. Once he was fully changed, he grinned again. "Especially when there isn't a kitten to be afraid of!"

"You are kidding me." Manny raised an eyebrow as he looked at Rufus, nearly dumbfounded. "This island got weird real quick."

"We're not exactly normal ourselves." Fang said bluntly. "But yeah, this place is pretty strange."

"I think this is the part in which I should introduce myself and explain what's going on, but right now there's not much time." Rufus looked at Minty, a bit worried. "I thought you guys went to get backup…?"

Swizzle nodded. "That we did Rufus! We're not the only ones here-" He stopped, and blinked. "…Hang on, where are the guards? They should have arrived by now."

"Oh, don't tell me they got lost!" Rufus whined softly and turned back into a cat. "Let's go, luckily they got into the other forest!" The two racers gave a small nod at that.

Manny however, sucked on the back of his teeth in annoyance. This cat-boy was definitely underestimating them. Then again, it's not like he knew them or what they could do. Fang was wondering what threat could be so dangerous that they needed a whole troop of guards on their back, so he stood forward to ask. "What about Gloyd and Vanellope? You wanted to check on them first, right?"

"Fang, don't you remember the message on the boat?" Swizzle sounded annoyed as they started their way back to the bay. "I'm sure the Silhouette knew we were coming back and crafted it for us to see it!"

Minty looked ahead. "Come on, quick." The racers hurried their pace, Rufus at the front running on his four paws.

"There's no point checking on them anyways, Vanellope's safe with Spellina back at our house." He explained to Fang, without looking at him. "But what message are you talking about- HOLY FUDGE!" The cat suddenly exclaimed as he turned around the corner where the bay was visible from, the rest following.

"W-what is it?" Swizzle got next to the cat first, who quickly hid behind his leg instead of answering. He looked up, and soon understood what went down on their backs.

The whole beach was covered with Oreo and Gumball's bits, the guards were killed.

The others arrived, and the shock was evident on each one of their faces. Fang got out from it first and looked very angered, balling his fist up. "It… took out all of them?" He turned to the others. "Quick, look around, it may be still here!" He began to move around the area.

But Rufus caught up with him. "It's no use, the Silhouette moves way too fast, it's probably long gone!" He looked back at the others, worried. "It's our chance to leave!"

"He's right, man." Swizzle put his hands on Fang's shoulder to hold him back lightly. "We need to get outta here!"

The fighter racer looked down disapprovingly. "…I'm gonna punch a hole through that thing when I find it." He said as he slammed his fist into his palm.

Manny, on the other hand, slowly bent down and inspected the nearest guard's body, or what was left from it. "Strange…" He mused. "I haven't seen markings like these before." He turned to Rufus once the cat got closer. "Yo cat-boy, can you tell me more about this thing? Anything I could use to track it, or maybe find some clue when it's around. Anything would help."

"I'm sorry, I can't." He dropped his ears. "Only thing I can tell you is that the Silhouette is that it's like... like a snake! There's no way to tell from where it's coming until too late…"

The archer huffed. With no way to track this thing, this job would be more difficult than he thought. "In that case, then we have no choice but get to the others, and then wait for it to come for us." Manny said as he stood up. He was actually angrier than he was letting on. As head guard he was in charge, and knew most, of the Gumball guards. But he knew he had to keep a cool head.

"Agreed," Fang nodded at Manny. "Once it shows its ugly head, we'll be able to catch it."

Right then the bodies of the guards dissolved into pixels and codes, which flew back to Sugar Rush to regenerate.

"…Sometimes, being in a videogame can be a bless." Swizzle sighed, and nodded at Rufus.

"This way!" He trotted back into the woods, the rest following him again towards the hideout.

Manny kept looking around as they made their way through. He didn't want to risk them being attacked, and he had the sharpest eyes in the group. "How much further away is the house? I don't like being out in the open like this."

"Just past the town, we're getting there- but you know! Something happened while you guys were gone!" Rufus said as they crossed the rock bridge that connected the forest with the town.

Minty looked down at the cat, a bit concerned. "It wasn't anything bad, right?"

The cat twitched his ears. "Nope~! Take a look at it!" They reached the town's entrance, and seemed surprised at what they saw.

"Hey, where did all those flowers come from?" Swizzle was amazed by the sight of the dark and silent town suddenly lit with life. "They weren't here when we left." He walked close to a few of them growing on the walls, they were made of sugar, and oddly enough they gave off a golden glow.

Fang also walked over to them, and knelt to watch them up close. He knew some things about flowers because Tea had an interest in them, but he couldn't quite place these. "Very strange." He said, thinking that maybe once this was over he'll take some for Tea.

On the other hand, Rufus instantly jumped over a flower patch, sugar dust and petals flying everywhere as he giggled and reappeared, with sugar covering most of his fur. "When these appeared, the people in town started going out of their houses to play with them!" He rubbed his head against a few. "And they are very tasty too!"

"I thought we were on a hurry here?" Minty tried to pick Rufus up from the flowers, but Swizzle got curious and decided to eat one.

He blinked, he didn't even chew the flower and it already dissolved into his mouth, feeling something fluttering all the way down his throat. It tickled him, and made him smile. "Huh, neat! Try one Mintz, they sort of make you feel better!"

Manny scowled at them. "Don't just eat random plant life you come across…" He looked over and then saw Fang nibbling off one of the flowers. "Oh come on Fang! I expect that from those two, but not you!"

"It's quite good." The other said smirking. "Try some."

"No thanks." The archer grunted.

Rufus jumped out of the flowers and shook himself, then sneezed after some sugar got into his nostrils, and smiled. "I have never seen them, but everyone in town is so happy! It's been years since I saw people playing around the plaza!"

"I can see this is something good, but we're not here to eat flowers." Minty said, trying to be serious. "We need to move on, remember? The quickest, the best."

"I know, I know!" The cat whined lightly, before starting to walk away to take them to their destination. On the way they saw many candy corn people that varied in colors, and all of them looked up at the avatars; a few of them waved at them, before they returned to play with the plants. Fang smiled at the citizens and waved back after collecting one flower for his partner. "It's very nice here, at least."

"Yeah… now it's nice." Rufus said as they took the path towards Spellina's house. "But the citizens are very vulnerable, and they suffered most attacks. It's nice to finally see them out of their houses, but it's still risky…" He turned around a corner and stopped. "We're here."

"Finally." Manny crossed his arms. "Maybe the other can shed some light on what's going on."

Swizzle saw the house and walked towards it with the others close, and knocked the door. "Hey guys! It's us!"

Soon enough, the door opened, they only caught a glimpse of green as they all were somehow pulled into the house. Spellina closed the door, muttered a _'Hurry up'_, and opened the secret pathway.

"Are they back?" Rufus changed back into his human self, seeming worried as they walked through the corridor.

Spellina grunted as she closed the entrance after they all got into the hidden corridor. "Does it even LOOKS like they're back?" She pointed to her own, non-amused face.

"…No?"

"Exactly."

Manny was looking at every detail of the single corridor they were at, the place was… spooky. But then again, what he was expecting. He decided to start getting into business. "Alright, who's the witch? And where are Vanellope and Gloyd? I thought we were supposed to be finding them." He didn't understand why Rufus looked a bit scared as he said the 'witch' part.

"Manners…" Fang nudged him, then turned to Spellina. "Allow me to introduce ourselves, we-"

It was the slap Manny received over the head that made Fang froze and stare at him wide eyed. Spellina was the one to deliver said hit, and she looked furious.

"Save that for later, because I'm making this clear to your friend right here." She snorted and put her hands on her hips as he rubbed his head. "In case you haven't noticed, genius, I'm wearing a witch costume, so hopefully you might understand that I'M the witch! And also the owner of this place! BOSS me around again and I won't doubt turning you into a MERE BUG!"

Both Minty and Swizzle shrank a little as her dark glare only made her green eyes look more menacing. "Hi Spellina.." They said weakly.

Manny growled at her and straightened his hat. "Why you little-!" He reached for an arrow, but Fang pushed his hand down.

"Don't." He said simply. "We need to focus on the main thing."

The archer gritted his teeth, and then sighed with a huff. "Whatever."

Rufus breathed out, a bit relieved that a fight didn't go down. Spellina just smirked. "Now that's clear, let's move in. If you're so desperate to know what's going on," She walked and brushed past Manny. "then you may as well do it quickly."

Manny just seemed angrier at this, while Fang seemed to ignore it and moved inside the secret room as well as the others. Vanellope was with both Whipcream and Spook, while Viper and Maria were on the floor surrounded by pillows, both of them were sleeping next to each other.

The raven girl looked up at them, and smiled. "Guys!" She stood up and went to greet them. "Ya made it back!"

_'Barely.'_ Muttered Swizzle, and then he got elbowed by Minty. "Ow! I get it!"

"Good to see you in one piece, princess." Manny said with a smirk.

Fang bowed slightly. "We're glad you're OK, Hime-sama."

"Well, won't lie, I have felt better on many other occasions." She huffed. "This place is insane guys."

Viper woke up by the noise, and yawned. He noticed the new faces, but he focused on both Swizzle and Minty's faces. "Yo, you guysss OK?" The two Sweet Tooth racers turned at the boy, blinking at his appearance.

Swizzle shook his head and sat down on another sofa. "A… lot of stuff happened on our way here, man." He sighed out.

Manny grunted loudly. "Whatever the hell is out there killed my guards, I'm not gonna let that slide." Upon hearing this, Vanellope widened her eyes. "What!? Even the Oreo guards!?"

"We arrived and decided to look for Rufus to see how things were doing. But when we did we realized the guards had still not reached us. That's when we found them." Minty explained, grief on her eyes. Without the guards, plus seeing how they were took out like nothing, she had the feeling they had no chance. Vanellope groaned and sat down, the pets looking worriedly at her.

"Well…" Rufus shyly piped in, considering the ambient was too tense. "I think we can start by introducing ourselves, and then try to make clear to these guys what's going on…?"

"Please." Fang nodded. "We know nothing about this place; if you can tell us more about it, it would be appreciated." He turned to the others and bowed lightly. "I am Fang Fruitloop. Thank you for taking care of our friends for this long. Any friend of theirs is a friend of ours."

"The name's Manny Maplelog. I came here to shoot something, and I never miss." He straightened out his hat. Manny glanced at Spellina for a second. "NEVER."

Catching that glance, she smirked a bit smugly. "Neither do I. I think frog suits you just fine." Spellina shrugged lightly. "We're glad to have some backup that's reliable... in a part. My name's Spellina Magicwhisper." Manny grunted lightly as he knew she was underestimating him. "We have been hiding here for years ever since the Silhouette showed up."

The boy with the snake hood eyed them for a while, seeming a bit skeptical about the Sweet Tooth racers, and held his girlfriend close. "The name'sss Viper Hissfangz..."

"I-I'm Maria Mirrorshard,... thanks for coming over..." She looked at them shyly, holding him as well.

Spellina went to sit on her chair near the others, with Rufus turning into a cat to rest on her lap. "Well, I think I'm supposed to tell you the whole thing about Trickery Treat Island." The witch racer rolled her eyes lightly as she gave Rufus a scratch behind his ears, making him purr. "It's rather long, however."

"Look, I'm trying to help by dealing with some creature that so far I know virtually nothing about. If I can't find anything out of it, then the island is the next best thing. So go ahead and fill me in. It's not like we have anything better to do." Manny said with a grunt as he sat on the floor, facing her.

Fang took a seat on the floor near him. "I'm just interested to hear about this place."

Spellina nodded. "Alright then... years ago, our island was under the watch of our Mayor, Lord Duskus Crowmaster. Things were... peaceful in our land, where we could go and play pranks on people and enjoy all the Halloween jazz we had, but all that ended when a dark truth was found." She looked at her friends. "Lord Duskus was using his own racers, us, to run experiments in our codes. The reason I can do magic and Rufus is able to shapeshift his form is because of that... we all have a power we were not originally created with."

The archer boy frowned lightly. "So, a ruler was using his subjects as pawns. Sounds like our old ruler."

"Though Garry never went as far as experimenting on us." Fang admitted, and not bothering to ask who this Garry was, she continued.

"The islanders were furious when they found out, but they snapped when one of our racers called Faust died." She saw the look on their faces and hurried to explain. "Ah, not like that, he was turned into a ghost, but his 'humanity' was deleted." She then continued. "From one day to another, Dim Light and the islanders started a rescue team and carried on their way to put an end to Duskus' power."

"To make thingsss-short, he wasss killed and deleted from the file that day..." Grunted Viper, as he knew the story like the back of his hand. He was the last one to be released by the islanders when they came to rescue him after all.

"Man, what a nightmare." Manny said cringing. This place really was a horror show. Between the experiments and the murder, he wasn't sure what to make out of the place.

The fighter glanced at him. "I normally don't agree with deleting anyone, but a madman like that..." Fang couldn't help but wonder if they'd have done the same to Garry given the chance.

The witch racer decided to keep on. "We knew he wanted to create the perfect racers, but the reason was never clear. The story doesn't end there however..." Spellina sighed. "The islanders were celebrating their victory when they saved us and deleted his code, but then the Silhouette appeared and started all this."

Maria looked at them. "It hunted us all these years, and there was nothing we could do... until Gloyd arrived."

"Yeah!" Rufus piped in. "When they arrived, that thing wanted to attack Gloyd, but then it ran away screaming!"

Fang rubbed his chin. "It ran when it saw him huh? Then maybe... maybe Gloyd hold the key to defeating, or maybe even destroying, this thing. I mean, why else would it run from him?" He asked.

"That's what we think, there is not other way to explain it..." Spellina looked at Maria. "But you see, Fang, my friend Maria here can see the reflection of someone's heart. She told us that the Silhouette was holding back a lot of things... guilt included, as weird as it sounds."

"Guilt huh? That's definitely strange. With all it's done I wouldn't have pegged it as the guilty type." Manny said. "But this is definitely a step forward. We know that Gloyd probably came from this island, and that thing recognizes him."

Fang was starting to catch on. "Maybe it's someone who used to know him?"

"We got a winner!" Smiled Rufus as he hoped down from Spellina's lap.

"Yeah but, who?" Swizzle looked at them. "Dim Light seemed like he recognized Gloyd, but not even he remembers anyone else."

"I have an idea. Maybe we should dig through the mayor's old place. If he was performing experiments on the racers, then I'm sure he must have kept some sort of data or files on them. It could give us some information on Gloyd. It might even have something on the Silhouette since it appeared right after the mayor got de-coded." Manny said.

The racers of the Island looked at each other for a while, and Rufus looked down. "We have been avoiding that place after our rescue, but it sounds like the best option..." He sounded unsure however.

"We can't leave until they're back, however." Maria looked at the door. "I just... hope they return."

"Don't say that." Vanellope muttered under her breath.

Fang looked at her. "Who's coming back?"

Viper let Maria get comfortable before answering. "Gloyd and Dim Light, they left to get Faust back to us." Swizzle widened his eyes. "What!"

"...So let me get this straight. Gloyd is the one this thing is after, and you thought it was a good idea to send him out there? What the fudge guys?" Manny said scowling. "At least tell me this Faust guy is somewhere close by."

"Sort of, but..." Rufus dropped his ears as he sat next to Spook. "Gloyd really wants to know what's going on, because everything that happened so far is linked to him. And if we consider he used to live here..."

Manny scratched his cheek. "Well, that was some big news when we first heard about it. But that does explain why he's so much weirder than the others back home."

Spellina shrugged. "Anyways, a guy wanting to find out something that personal is impossible to stop; in our small group, Gloyd was the only one successful to bring most of us back together." She glanced at the couple. "We trusted him, even if we all knew how much of a bad idea it was, and he was aware of it." Both Maria and Viper looked down.

Fang nodded his head. "You're right, when it comes to something like finding out where you're from, I don't think anyone would have been able to stop him. It's understandable for him to want to go mostly on his own." Fang shrugged lightly. "It's a guy thing."

"Either way, him being alone is dangerous. I say we go after him." Manny suggested.

"Technically, he is not alone." Spellina pointed out. "And... there's really nothing we can do, if we consider that thing out there will get to us. The Silhouette seems to posses the ability to see our weak points, or rather said, fears; that's how it got most of us separated."

The archer grunted. "I don't have any fears." Manny crossed his arms.

"We all have fears Manny. Even if we don't know what they are." Fang explained.

"...You looked rather crept out about this place, dude." Muttered Swizzle. Minty started to look around Spellina's vast collection of books as another question was forming on her mind.

"...What about the flowers?" She finally asked. "We saw a lot in town when we arrived."

"Those? They only made me more confused." The witch themed racer shook her head. "I can't place them here- they just came out of nowhere right after some earthquake happened, and that's already nothing common."

"So you really don't have any idea what they are? You really shouldn't have eaten those." Manny said to the kung-fu fighter with slight concern.

"I feel fine." Fang said rubbing his stomach. "I did collect one of them if you want to get a closer look at it?" He said pulling out the flower from underneath his Gi and offered it to Spellina.

The witch racer hummed, and picked it to inspect it. "Well, at least you brought me an example instead of eating it, unlike someone I know." Rufus giggled a bit nervously behind her feet. Spellina returned the flower to Fang. "Other than the glowing, there's nothing 'special' about this flower, as far as I can tell."

"Ssshould we asssk Dim Light once he'sss back?" Viper looked at her. "He might know about them." Upon hearing this, Spellina hummed again, and moved to her library, looking for something.

"I have heard this name repeated a few times, who's Dim Light?" Manny asked.

Maria answered, not moving from her spot on her boyfriend's chest. "Dim Light isn't a racer like us... he's both a Reaper and a NPC, and apparently, someone who knew about Gloyd when he lived here..." She then looked at Manny. "...Are you really planning on going outside?"

"Of course I'm going outside." Manny said simply. "My friend is out there, and I have a Silhouette to take down. Fears or not fears, I can't just sit back and do nothing. It isn't my style."

Fang smirked. "Yeah. We're Sweet Tooth racers. Being dangerous and reckless is kind of our thing."

"More like ssstupid and ignorant." Glared Viper. Both Sweet Tooth racers glared back at him. "Didn't you think that we ssshould have done sssomething by now? We have been trying to sssurvive all thossse attacksss, dammit!" Noticing the tensity growing around him, Maria looked at him with a soft stare, and he slowly started to relax.

"They aren't saying we didn't do our part, they just want to help..." She said calmly, and Viper sighed. "...You're right, sssorry doll." Both Manny and Fang looked at each other, almost wondering if they behaved like that around the girls.

Spellina kept roaming through her books with Minty's help. "Why do you think it's called Silhouette? Try to answer that."

The archer, somehow, knew she was talking about him. "If I had to guess I'd say it's because its a shadow. They told us how it's impossible to track." Manny said, shrugging his shoulders.

"And, are shadows solid? No." She looked at him as if he was stupid. "How do you think you can just come and shoot an arrow to it like nothing?"

"Anything can be destroyed." Fang said sternly. "Even if we can't physically touch it, it has to have some weakness."

Manny sat down and put his feet up on the table. "Yeah, what would Jimmy said in a situation like this?" Manny asked with a chuckle. "Even if something is impossible, I'll make it possible!" He said doing his best Jimmy impression. It got a chuckle from Fang and a nod from Swizzle.

Spellina just kept searching until she retrieved Dim Light's journal, and stared to look through the pages. At first nothing came up, until she saw something that surprised her. "...Well, apparently those flower did have a spot on this island." She got near the other and showed them an illustration that covered two whole pages. "Check this out."

It was a drawing made with nothing but black ink, which was starting to blur after years of deterioration, but it was still clear to understand. It was a kid on a flower alley, the kid was too far away to be seen, but the flowers were the same ones in town. It was entitled...

"The light he created?" Vanellope blinked.

"It means the flowers aren't natural beings of this island, they're a Power-Up!" Rufus understood. "None of us can make plants so... Gloyd must have caused them to grow!"

Swizzle blinked. "...That would make sense, I mean, he works on a pumpkin field with his parents, and he likes wildlife." He then frowned. "But, I don't remember him ever using that Power-Up, or any Power-Up at Sugar Rush."

"What would have caused Gloyd to suddenly use that power?" Minty inquired.

Maria seemed worried. "H-hopefully it's not a bad thing-?"

The door was slammed open and everyone turned with wide eyes, Manny acted quickly and took and arrow and fired it, but with a quick movement, Dim Light knocked it away. The Reaper was looking mortified, unlike his ghost partner who held a straight face.

"G-GLOYD!" He managed to choke out as he got into the room. "T-the Silhouette! It took GLOYD!"

"WHAT!?" Swizzle got in front of Dim Light and shook him by the cape. "Why did you let it happen!? You were meant to watch after his back!" Minty had to pull him back along Viper, but Dim Light did not even try to correct him, as the word struck him worse that the arrow would have; the darevil was right, he didn't pay enough attention and now his friend was gone.

"I... I'm sorry, I..." He tried saying, but Faust floated in front of him, and looked straight at Swizzle's eyes.

"Shut it." He said, but his voice didn't carry any feelings at all, which made the stunt racer confused. "They went to rescue me, and the only one to do that was apparently Dim Light. This 'Gloyd' was taken away just as I was back to normal, so don't even try to accuse him."

There was an uncomfortable silence, until Maria got to Faust's side and hugged him, the rest of the Trickery Treat racers soon followed, and everyone was soon hugging the ghost boy. Faust face didn't change a bit, despite everyone being so happy to finally being reunited gain.

"I am happy to be back as well." He said flatly.

Manny sighed, he knew this probably meant a lot for them, but his friend was in serious danger. "Look, I get you guys are relieved and all but we gotta get Gloyd back."

"I know that." Spellina grunted as they pulled away from the embrace, and turned to Dim Light. "Please tell me you know where they went to."

"One of the ghost servants told me they... saw the Silhouette heading to the East." The Reaper replied, seeming grim as this all happened.

"And there's only one place I can think of..."

* * *

A soft yawn escaped him as he woke up again in the same room.

Gloyd carefully sit up, but he wasn't feeling as dizzy as before, so he had no trouble shaking his head to wake up faster. A quick look around the room made him realize the Silhouette wasn't there, and it both calmed and made him uncomfortable, if that was even a possible thing to experience.

The feeling was forgotten for a few seconds when he turned his head to a side and saw that there were words written on the wall, thick black words that said:

**'YOU CAN EXPLORE, BUT PLEASE DON'T LEAVE AGAIN.'**

This struck him badly, again? What did that creature tried to mean with that last part?

But soon the prankster, to his own shock, knew what it meant.

The Silhouette claimed to know him, then, did that mean they used to be friends? Just like Dim Light?

Gloyd groaned as he felt a migraine coming, and held his head with his hands as he thought about it. Remembering Dim Light was a pure chance, but he couldn't place the Silhouette in there. When did they know each other? And why was it so hard to remember all these details?

He decided to give up.

The boy looked at the words on the wall again, and stood up; it seemed it was alright for the monster to let him roam around… wherever he was, and even if he knew he could use this chance to escape, Gloyd surprisingly decided against it. He was tired of not remembering anything, and this place might hold some answers that both he and his friends needed.

He looked at the window, and decided to peek through the wood planks than kept it closed. Gloyd couldn't see much, but it seemed there was a garden, a huge garden, yet it was pretty dark outside to make out which plants were there.

'I could start from there.' He thought.

Gloyd turned around and walked towards the door of the room, the floor creaking under his shoes as he reached the doorknob and turned it. The door opened slowly, and he carefully poked his head out to see the place. It seemed to be another abandoned mansion.

He closed the door behind him, and the first thing he noticed were the many, many claw markings made on the walls- the Theater had a lot, but it seemed this place had it worse. Gloyd quickly understood that this was probably the place the Silhouette did live at. But what was it before it took it for its shelter?

The prankster noticed the stairs that led downstairs and decided to continue his way, the floor always creaking with each step he gave. It seemed the place was somehow more damaged than the other buildings he visited, but while they looked damaged for being abandoned, this place looked like… if someone tried destroying it on purpose. The only to blame about that was the Silhouette, but it only made less sense for him.

If it lived here, why destroy its place?

Finally he reached the first floor, and saw a lot of old yet expensive furniture, which were used like a cat pole- the sofas had tears and claw markings everywhere, and it was a wonder of how he knew those were sofas to begin with. The tables, and their seats, and also a few old clocks there weren't in their best shape either.

It was when he turned around that he knew where he was.

In a grey brick chimney, there was a picture of a man with hard features. He recognized him, it was Duskus Crowmaster. Not only that, but he saw more words written right across the picture, but these seemed far older that the ones in the other room.

**'DON'T LISTEN TO THE LIAR.'**

"…So, that thing didn't like him either…" Gloyd mused, wondering just how many things the Silhouette was hiding from them. At first everyone thought it attacked people to avenge that man, but apparently, that wasn't the case.

If the Silhouette didn't trust the last mayor, then why did it attack the people of the rebellion? And why did it keep hunting the rest of the islanders until this day?

He sighed, and decided to look away from the picture- it was giving him a very uncomfortable feeling anyways, as if the stare of the painted man was shrinking him or something. Gloyd looked around the mansion, which now he knew it probably belonged to Duskus, and also knew this was the place the rebellion took place in. It sort of creep him out to know the islanders went as far as to delete him from the code, but then again, that guy deserved it.

His gaze fell on a single door, right in the middle of another wall. He blinked as he realized that the door was… clean. And also well preserved- which was the reason to keep it like that?

Gloyd walked towards it, and decided he should try to open it. But as he turned the knob, he realized the door was locked. He tried a few more times, but nothing. He decided to let it be.

"I will try to ask that thing about this door… later." He mumbled and looked around again. Not much there to see, except two more doors. The big one was probably the exit, so he decided to go for the other one- which curiously, was wide open.

The prankster carefully walked through it, and was surprised when he realized he was at the garden he saw from the window. And just like he could tell from up there, it was huge; with bushes, statues, and trees. The statues were broken and covered in vines and spider web, but like the door from before, the plants were well preserved.

Gloyd walked through the passage made of bushes, reminding him of the candy labyrinths at the castle back at Sugar Rush. This thought made him sad, he thought about his parents, and wondered what they were doing- if his friends informed them about what was going out in this place, they were probably worried about him.

Sighing, and hoping this all would end soon, Gloyd noticed he reached a circle at the middle of the garden, made of nothing but black flowers. He blinked a few times before he sat down near them, and took in the color. These seemed natural, and they were all black roses; he liked plants, so he knew these were very rare.

Gloyd remembered those roses were also at Faust's place. Did the Silhouette plant those there as well?

He wanted to reach out and touch one, but felt a shiver going up his spine suddenly. Gloyd looked around, wondering why he felt that, but he then started to hear something, coming from inside the house.

_'…re are you? Where are you?'_

It was back, and it was calling out for him.

The Silhouette sounded desperate as it tried to locate him, so Gloyd swallowed and decided to answer before the creature freaked out. "H-here…! I'm here."

Just as he said that, a dark swirl left the house in a flash and flowed around his frame for a few seconds, making him tense up, before it moved back and shifted its form, turning into the Silhouette.

It sat next to Gloyd, knees up to its chest with its hands resting on them, and they just stood there next to each other awkwardly; it was very quiet for any comfort.

So Gloyd decided to speak, despite feeling it was a bad decision.

"…Uh… nice garden." He said, and bit lowly.

The Silhouette, however, didn't have problems answering. _'I… wor…ed on it…'_

Gloyd looked at it, a bit surprised. "You did? I didn't think you were into gardening."

_'…I tho…ught the sa…e, but… you lik…e flo…wers, so…'_

"Wait, how…?" He stared confused at the creature, and it looked back at him, calmly.

_'Just… did.'_

They turned their glances again at the roses.

_'But… do…u lik…e it?'_

"Hmm?" He glanced at the Silhouette.

_'The… flo…wers, did I… do ri…ght?'_

Gloyd blinked at it, was it hoping for his approval? "I… don't know why you are asking this. But I really like them." He nodded faintly. "Black roses are so rare to came by at Sugar Rush it's… a wonder there are so many here."

The Silhouette made a deep humming sound, and turned itself to face Gloyd. _'…I'm glad you do, really.'_ Its voice didn't sound like a broken whisper anymore, and it surprised the prankster again.

"…" Gloyd looked down, no longer thinking straight like a while ago thanks to the Silhouette- was it trying to be friendly with him or something? And it also knew about his liking for plant life; that wasn't a fear, so it struck him oddly.

Speaking of which, he looked at the roses, and decided to lift his arm to touch one.

_'What…are you doing?'_ It asked, but it sounded more curious than anything else.

The prankster looked at it, a bit nervous. "N-nothing… I guess I wanted to touch one… no reason." He quickly brought his arm back, away from the flower as he thought the creature was overprotective of them or something. However, the Silhouette moved forward, and cut one flower; this made the boy blink again.

_'Thorns.'_ Was the only thing it said as it carefully passed the flower to Gloyd, who slowly picked it from its claws.

Just as he touched the rose, it was covered by a golden hue, and soon the rose was turned into a sugar flower with golden linings. Gloyd widened his eyes as the flower lit the place a bit. He looked up at the Silhouette, who was looking at the flower in wonder.

It then removed one petal, and ate it. Gloyd looked at it confused, but that didn't stop it from having the small snack. The Silhouette chewed silently, before swallowing… and its features changed.

It seemed to be smiling.

_'…Just like… years back.'_ It said. _'Nothing… changed.'_

"W-what do you mean? What hasn't changed?" He looked from the Silhouette to the flower.

The Silhouette ignored that comment as it nibbled off another petal, but that was not all, the shadows floating around it were dissolving, very slowly, but the Silhouette's body was changing. Gloyd watched as it ate the flower, the monster almost seeming content.

_'...Were you doing anything?'_ Now the voice was changing as well, it sounded less deep. _'Before... seeing the garden, I mean.' _It turned to see Gloyd.

Gloyd remembered the door. "I, uh... not much. I was looking around the living room, and all I saw was this closed door and-"

_'Ah!'_ It suddenly exclaimed, making the prankster to look at it quickly, before seeing how the Silhouette left the garden and went into the house. It called him from the inside. _'Come, please!...And bring flowers as well.'_ Gloyd, who was starting to question what had the flowers done to it, decided just to please the Silhouette and touched a few more black roses, changing them to sugar flowers and picked them, and then walked inside.

He spotted it, right next to the door he saw moments ago. Gloyd passed the flowers to it, and the Silhouette ate a few more. After eating two roses, Gloyd noticed the Silhouette wasn't as tall as before, and it just kept shrinking.

"...Hey, maybe you should stop eating those." He didn't know why he was warning the other being, but he just did.

_'Nonsense, I need them...' _It ate another, and then faced Gloyd. The Silhouette was half its size now, and the voice wasn't breaking, or as deep as it used to. _'...Sorry, I shouldn't keep you waiting. This is something I wanted to show you.'_ It left the flowers on a table, dissolved its body and went through the door. Gloyd heard a 'click' sound, and the Silhouette formed in front of him again. _'It's open, you can walk inside now.'_

The brunet just nodded, just hoping to know what this was all about, and opened the door. It didn't creak like he expected it to; the door was kept well, and he was about to find out why.

Gloyd went down the stairs right at the other side of the door, it seemed to be a basement. He reached the last step, and saw there was only a table with what appeared to be a notebook, and a bed. But it was very cold, and it didn't feel like a room someone would sleep at.

Gloyd was suddenly uncomfortable, and he wanted to leave, even if there weren't claw marking on that one room. But he heard the door closing as saw that the Silhouette entered as well, and carrying the flowers with him. _'Well... the bed and the table weren't here originally, but, maybe you remember this place?'_ The prankster shook his head. "I don't... or so I think... what is this place?"

The Silhouette stood quiet and just looked at Gloyd, then turned its sight at the notebook. The message was clear. Gloyd walked towards it, and picked it- it was very old, and the pages were yellow, he sat on the bed, and started to read. It seemed like some old diary, but what called his attention was the writing, the writing belonged to a six year old, with messing letters and a few drawings.

But the drawings were about nothing but a boy crying.

He looked at the Silhouette, who just nodded- was it looking nervous? But before getting a glance that confirmed that, it went outside after devouring all the flowers left.

Gloyd glanced down at the diary, and started to read.

**_'I heard dad shout this morning, I think he was mad at Gloyd for not making breakfast on time, or something like it.'_**

He widened his eyes, his name was written in this journal! But someone else wrote it. The only question was, who?

Gloyd skipped a few pages, these seemed from years later, as the calligraphy wasn't as messy, and there was a drawn picture of a boy sleeping on the floor, with another boy next to him. He seemed to be singing because there were singing notes next to him.

**_'I couldn't sleep because Gloyd got pretty beat up by dad. It makes me mad to know that I can't get in between- I'll never understand why dad hates him so much, he only says that Gloyd will stop me from becoming the next ruler, but how?'_**

"The next…?" The prankster frowned, now understanding- the 'dad' that was mentioned here must have been Duskus, and realization hit him: The mayor had a son.

But why was he there with that son? Or why wasn't he mentioned before? Dim Light should have known something about this guy.

**_'The only good thing about these powers my father gave me is that I can slip through anything and go unnoticed.' _**

"The mayor even experimented with his kid? That guy was insane." He grumbled as he continued.

**_'Last night after his beating I got into Gloyd's room- I don't like him being on there, but if I ever let him into my room, my dad is bound to hurt me. All I can do to comfort him is to sing. Gloyd is a heavy sleeper, so he never notices when I'm with him at nights.'_**

**_'He does react a bit however, I think he likes it when I sing Wonderwall to him.'_**

_'Wonderwall.'_ Gloyd looked up from the notebook, and recalled what the Silhouette had told him. "The table and the bed weren't here originally… this was my room." He sighed heavily, no wonder he disliked this place when he walked in.

**_'I just turned 8, and I'm not longer wanting to become a Mayor- not only dad is becoming stranger with his position, but I'm starting to act like him. I do want to make him proud because Mom is no longer here with us, but not like this... I don't want to shout at Gloyd, I don't want to make him work, I don't want to hurt him like he does… but I'm doing that.'_**

**_'There's something else going on, dad told me several times Gloyd doesn't have a power like me, or like the rest of the guys here, he told me that's a shame for our family; but lately Gloyd is spending time in the garden, and I saw something shining there as well. I really don't know what he's planning.'_**

The boy was referring to Gloyd's power, and a thought made him shiver in discomfort- was he another experiment, then? He shook his head and skipped a few more pages, and froze when there was a page with nothing but three words:

**_'I did it.'_**

* * *

"Your majesty!"

"I know, Sthowa Bill!" King Candy rushed into the code room with his royal adviser, noticing the commotion going on at the box he had tried to unlock for the past weeks. "When did thith sthtarted to happen?"

The green candy seemed shocked as he answered. "Barely minutes ago. It just started to do… that." He pointed at Gloyd's code box, which was moving and turning madly inside the room, flashing orange rays of light.

"What's going on?" Lady Pumpkin and her husband rushed into the throne room as they were also trying to find out what was happening to their son.

The ruler turned to them. "Oh, Pumpkin! Gourd! I need to go check this ASTHAP! Bring me a rope!"

* * *

He moved to the next page.

**_'I hurt Gloyd.' _**

**_ 'I destroyed the flowers he created; I don't what came to me. I snapped back to reality when I hit him, I SLAPPED him across the face for crying out loud- I never wanted to do that!'_**

**_'He returned the punch. I deserved it... but dad came in just then.' _**

**_'Dad tried to finish Gloyd, but if it wasn't for us being able to spawn, he would have done that.'_**

**_'I have never been so sick of myself before.'_**

Gloyd also started to feel sick.

* * *

The Orangeboars held the rope tightly as King Candy tried his best to approach the box, but it was really hard to do that; the box just kept inching away from reach, and more lights and sparks started to form.

"Ack!"

"King Candy!" Lord Gourd looked as the man tried his best to move past the cables of the boxes. "Hurry!"

"I'm trying!"

* * *

Gloyd's hands started to glitch then, but he barely noticed as he moved onto the next entry.

**_'I couldn´t keep it in any longer, I was lying the whole time- about wanting to follow dad's steps, about hating Gloyd, about everything.' _**

**_'I went into his room to try and explain it to him.'_**

**_'But Gloyd wasn't on his room that night.' _**

**_'And he was nowhere in the house.'_**

Something deep in the prankster's mind clicked… this sounded familiar to him.

* * *

"Almost there!" The King called as he finally was able to grab one of the cables of the character box and started to climb his way up.

Lady Pumpkin was panicked. "W-what's happening to my baby boy!?" Lord Gourd held her hand tightly, starting to get anxious as well.

But a light beam hit King Candy as he tapped the box to fix what was wrong, making him yelp in pain. "AHH!"

"Your majesty!" The three shouted.

* * *

Gloyd's body kept glitching, soft orange blinks adding light to the dark room that used to be his, but he seemed to be unaware of them as he moved through the pages.

**_'I found Gloyd, and I was about to catch him so I could try to tell him everything, but I couldn't.' _**

**_'He somehow crossed the barrier of the island, and I wasn't able to. I kept hitting the barrier, and shouting at him to get back.'_**

**_'But he was too mad at me, and he left…because of me.'_**

"I was… able to leave…?"

* * *

"I-I'm fine!" He called back as he once again tried to reach the box. King Candy saw that the reason of the sudden glitching came from the 'Memory' slot- the icon was pulsing like a fastening heartbeat, as if it was trying to…

The King touched the icon and the window asking for the password popped up. He had been trying to open it since the racers had set off.

* * *

**_'…I'm so sorry, little brother.'_**

Gloyd stopped breathing as he read that.

**_'I promise you, that next time I see you… I will protect you.'_**

**_'I should have done that in the beginning.'_**

* * *

It was a password of five letters. He had tried almost anything the past few weeks, but nothing.

But as another light beam hit him, King Candy knew what to do.

* * *

Ignoring the sudden pain on his body, Gloyd moved on; the pages were blank after that last statement, but he finally found one... the last page.

**_'They killed him.'_**

* * *

The man started to see several things- a kid crying in the hospital room, thin, and haunted by his memories.

There was something the kid kept repeating in his nightmares, as stated in the medical check-ups.

King Candy typed the following word.

**'Lloyd'.**

The memories struggling inside of the slot were released.

* * *

Back at the mansion, the agonizing scream of a boy was heard as an orange light that could be seen from town went off.

And another boy shouted after it died down.

"GLOYD!"

* * *

**A/N: Well guys, the Silhouette's identity is finally revealed! As some of you guessed, Lloyd was the face behind this monster- but this is far from over! What will happen when Gloyd and the rest of the gang face him? And is the island finally free after years of fear and pain?**

**You will find out in the next update! Don't forget to leave me a review of this chapter!**

**~DreamerAwaken out.**


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